Improving our understanding of microbial community dynamics and the microbial interactions driving them has tremendous potential to benefit agricultural, environmental, and human health. Our lab focuses on how key microbes within host and environmental microbiomes degrade organic wastes and how modulating these microbiomes may lead to cleaner, more efficient waste conversion into valuable bioproducts. Current lab research spans diverse biological scales, including the microbial roles in organic waste cycling by the black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) gut microbiome, forensic microbiology, and collaborations in human health. We utilize a combination of environmental sampling, laboratory models, multi-omics, and bioinformatic tools to explore the relationship between microbial diversity, microbial interactions, and ecological outcomes in free-living and host-associated systems.