and quantifying the IMF is of paramount importance since it affects galactic star formation rates (SFR), galactic chemical evolution, formation and evolution of stellar clusters, stellar remnant populations, galactic supernova rates, the energetics and phase balance of the interstellar medium (ISM), mass-to-light ratios, galactic dark matter content, and how we model galaxy formation and evolution [@Kennicutt1998b; @Hoversten2007].

The IMF of stellar populations can be investigated either via direct [studies that count individual stars to infer stellar ages to compute an IMF, eg., @Bruzzese2015] or indirect methods [studies that model the integrated light from stellar populations to infer an IMF, eg., @Baldry2003]. Due to current observational constraints, the number of extragalactic IMF measurements that utilizes direct measures of the IMF is limited [@Leitherer1998]. Therefore, most studies employ indirect measures of the IMF, which are affected by numerous systematic uncertainties and limitations.

Indirect IMF measures can be insensitive to low mass stellar populations since bright O, B, and red supergiant stars may outshine low mass stars. In contrast at the highest mass end, there can be an insufficient number massive stars to make a significant contribution to the detected light [@Leitherer1998; @Hoversten2008]. In addition, degeneracies in stellar population models play a significant 