I am a postdoc in the Dunn Lab in the Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University where I use participatory science tools to study community ecology, biogeography, and the human dimensions of conservation. I received my PhD  from North Carolina State University in 2023, where I worked in the Cooper Public Science Lab. My dissertation examined the role of citizen science in shaping public engagement with environmental issues, particularly among diverse volunteers. I am also an experienced science communicator and my work has appeared in Smithsonian, Discover, Scientific American, Undark, Atlas Obscura, on the TEDx stage and in many other outlets and publications.

My undergraduate training was primarily in evolutionary ecology and I worked in the Pfennig Lab where I wrote my thesis on rattlesnake evolution. I also received a minor in Creative Writing and wrote a manuscript of poetry called Drift, Fence, a second thesis.

Mary Oliver tells us that all her life she wanted to be married to amazement-- to be willing to be dazzled. I too yearn for, and time and again discover, that amazement in the natural world: in the shad finding their way from the sea to their natal stream by scent, the hummingbird harvesting spider webs for its nest, the still blue lakes above tree-line in the Sierras and the blistering forth of life in Yasuní, deep in the Amazon.

I spent undergrad myself getting dazzled by ecology. In graduate school, I sought to connect my experience with the experiences of others. My professional goal is to work at the nexus between these worlds-- using public engagement in science to further ecological research and conservation goals.