Growing up in the woods and on the waters of Maine, I have long been fascinated by the natural world, and especially by the flora and fauna that make up our surroundings. While attending Yale College, I had the opportunity to conduct field work in South Africa, asking questions about how characteristics of tree species influence where boundaries between savanna and forest landscapes arise.
After graduation, I moved to Sitka, Alaska, a community inherently linked to its abundant natural resources—both terrestrial and marine. While developing curriculum for the fisheries technology department at the University of Alaska Southeast, I had the opportunity to swim alongside sea lions, fillet salmon alongside fishers, and ask questions about the echos of changing climate patterns reverberate throughout communities that define themselves by their natural surroundings.
Now I’m pursuing my PhD at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey where I study the impact of warming oceans on the distribution of commercial fish species and how coastal communities are adapting.
BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2015
Yale University