My background is in biology (B.S.), conservation genetics, and science education (M.Ed.) (Centre College, SUNY-ESF, Xavier University). I’ve taught genetics (SUNY-ESF) and secondary-level biology, chemistry, and physical science. Currently, I am an educator and trainer at Cascades Raptor Center, where I work alongside highly skilled humans and birds to help inspire others to find what excites them about the world they inhabit. I am also the creator of the science newsletter A Teetering Vulture.

In the summer of 2025 I was awarded a fiction writing residency at The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund by the Hudson Valley Writers Center. I have been writing fiction since I was a tween, which was back when the things I wrote made me cringe so hard that I, as a dramatic thirteen-year-old, loaded all my stories up onto a flash drive and chucked it out of my bedroom window into the snow, where my stories’ fate was decimation by the elements. Nowadays, less dramatically, more confidently, I share my fiction with other nerds in fandom communities, and I delight in being part of these creative, rebellious spaces. I am very thankful for anyone who has ever given one of my stories a shot. Maybe one day all of this writing for fun will lead to something even more fun.

For three years I was also a crisis counselor with The Trevor Project. As a lesbian woman who knows what it can feel like to be an outsider, I have always wanted the work that I do—in every role I fill—to drive the type of change in the world that means our societies become more equitable and all living things are treated with more care and kindness.