Ashley Ficke is a fisheries ecologist with 19 years of field and research experience and who is an expert in fish passage and habitat design for native fishes. She is highly knowledgeable on the swimming abilities and behaviors of fish native to Great Plains streams, their ecology, and the constraints placed upon them by human infrastructure. Dr. Ficke has provided insight for numerous fish passage and stream restoration projects to help ensure that fishway designs work for the intended species. Many of the available fishway specifications for small, native Great Plains fishes are a result of her PhD. research. She has worked on fish passage issues in the Rocky Mountain, Midwest, and Northeastern regions. She is currently developing methods for high-level fish passage assessments that allow prioritization of barrier removal/modification in small Rocky Mountain Region streams with multiple migration barriers.