About
I was born in the Santa Cruz, CA mountains. Among the poison oak, blackberries, mountain lions, and redwood trees that surround my childhood home. Earthquakes punctuated my childhood as did the wild nature of the land I was born on. The product of two Santa Cruz hippies who adored art, music, and science, my path has been as windy as the dirt road to our house. I have a Bachelors in Arts from San Francisco State University, where I studied Art History concentrating on non-western art. After living and working in San Francisco CA for many years becoming an avid rock climber and van-lifer pre social media explosion of this particular lifestyle, I moved North to Chico CA. From there I spent the next few years enjoying the outdoors and trying to find what I was passionate about. Following a whim and suggestion from my father, I went back to school to get my BS in Geology. In the Fall of 2015, I graduated from MSU Denver, with a degree in Applied Geology. While attending MSU Denver, I fell in love with paleobotany and was accepted into the Currano lab at the University of Wyoming and started my Masters of Science in 2016.
My masters work looked at how plant and insect communities changed across the Paleocene Eocene boundary within the Hanna Basin, Wyoming. In May of 2018 I graduated with my MS in Botany and was accepted into the Program in Ecology for my PhD. While working on my MS in botany, I became interested in ecology and plant physiology but wanted to more intimately connect the modern living forests with the paleobotanical fossil record. As a PhD candidate I used paleobotanical methods of collecting leaf material and analyzing insect feeding to understand differences across temperate and wet-tropical forests. Following the completion of my dissertation in May 2022, I shifted my focus to understory communities specifically studying fern communities. My postdoc work aids in our understanding how fern communities facilitate community assemblage. I plan to continue working within modern and paleontological datasets to understand plant communities, eventually hoping to secure an assistant professor position where I can support undergraduate and graduate students.
My masters work looked at how plant and insect communities changed across the Paleocene Eocene boundary within the Hanna Basin, Wyoming. In May of 2018 I graduated with my MS in Botany and was accepted into the Program in Ecology for my PhD. While working on my MS in botany, I became interested in ecology and plant physiology but wanted to more intimately connect the modern living forests with the paleobotanical fossil record. As a PhD candidate I used paleobotanical methods of collecting leaf material and analyzing insect feeding to understand differences across temperate and wet-tropical forests. Following the completion of my dissertation in May 2022, I shifted my focus to understory communities specifically studying fern communities. My postdoc work aids in our understanding how fern communities facilitate community assemblage. I plan to continue working within modern and paleontological datasets to understand plant communities, eventually hoping to secure an assistant professor position where I can support undergraduate and graduate students.