About Me
Growing up in Portland, OR, I played in the rain-soaked fir forests of the Pacific Northwest. My enthusiasm for the outdoors lead to a pursuit of a B.S. in Natural Resource Management and B.A. in Environmental Studies from the Davidson Honors College, University of Montana - Missoula. As an interpreter at the Montana Natural History Museum and at Gastineau Guiding in Juneau, AK, I developed a passion for teaching and preservation of the natural world.
My interest in preservation lead me to a field study course in Montana: Wilderness and Civilization. In one class I met a rancher who used a charcoal soil amendment called biochar in his garden. As a way to increase soil water, create habitat for essential microbes, and even store carbon, biochar served many purposes. Could organic additions, such as biochar, help improve plant growth, soil health, and mitigate climate change? I pursued this line of inquiry in an Honors Thesis at UM. I then chose to expand on this research at the graduate level, enrolling in the Colorado State University Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and on to a Postdoctoral Assistant position at Purdue University in the summer of 2018.
Broadly, I hope to continue serving as an interpreter in my field of soil ecology, delving into the mechanisms that build healthy soils. I want to dig deep into the science, and connect my work to management practices for climate-smart agriculture. I believe issues such as resilient agriculture and resource management require community approaches and collaborative efforts internationally.
I want to be an active participant in this global network and part of the solution.