I grew up north of Chicago where I worked through high school as a dog groomer and reptile zoo tour guide. Young and eager for new experiences, I left the Midwest to attend Colorado College at the base of Pike’s Peak in Colorado Springs, CO in 2002.

While earning my Bachelor’s degree in Biology, I had the opportunity to be a field assistant in the Bahamas for a UCLA graduate student studying human induced natural selection pressure on anole lizards. During the summers, back in Illinois, I interned at the McHenry County Conservation District as a Wildlife Management Field Assistant and Herpetology Field Technician. At the same time, I was an Animal Welfare Intern at the Racine Zoo in Southeast WI. While in Colorado, I volunteered at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, assisting the veterinarian staff with surgical procedures and participating in endangered Black Footed Ferret, Wyoming Toad, and Southern Colorado Boreal Toad breeding and recovery programs.

After graduating in 2006 I got a job with the Colorado Division of Wildlife for a short time before moving to Key West, FL to work for the Nature Conservancy, controlling invasive species. Later, I moved to Fairbanks, AK where I worked for the Center for Environmental Management on Military Lands. In both Florida and Alaska, I became a red card certified wildland firefighter and class B tree faller.

Wanting to shift my focus to water quality and wetland management, I returned to school in 2010 to get my Master’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Science at Mississippi State University. I intentionally focused my graduate school search to the Gulf region as I saw it as the perfect classroom to study non-point source nutrient loading. My research was in the applied biogeochemistry of agricultural phosphorus runoff best management practices. I was able to present my research at regional, national, and international conferences, as well as publish my work in a textbook chapter and articles in peer reviewed academic journals such as the Journal of Environmental Quality and Water, Air, & Soil Pollution.

The year following graduation, I set off to compete a solo thru-hike of the Appalachian Trial before finally moving to Wisconsin, when I took a position with UW-Stout. Under a National Science Foundation grant I supervised students in field and laboratory settings while conducting ephemeral wetland research. Having fallen in love with the area and wanting to stay after the season was over, I applied for a consulting job designing an interactive lake exhibit for the Cable Natural History Museum, just north of Hayward. When the project finished, and the exhibit opened, I was hired by St. Croix County as a Watershed Technician from 2015 until 2019 when I became the Regional Nonpoint Source Coordinator for the DNR.

In the meantime, I also became President of the Tainter Menomin Lake Improvement Association, got my pilot’s license, bought land in the Knapp hills to manage and restore, and worked weekends at the local comic book shop. My partner and I share the inside of our home with several exothermic pets and a dog, and welcome many more beings to the outside through my passion for native plant gardening.