My scientific interests are broadly how water and riparian and wetland ecosystems interact, how these interactions influence nutrient cycling at large and small scales, and how climate change may alter these interactions and nutrient cycling.  I’m passionate to understand how science can become integrated with the grassroots needs and knowledge of communities, and how to support women and underrepresented groups’ thriving—not just surviving—in science and technology fields.  I love the outdoors, reading, art & food!

I wanted to be a cartoonist and a writer well into my teenage years and couldn’t imagine myself being in the “hard” sciences.  My mom is an incredible self-taught naturalist and we took hiking with tidbits about plants, rocks and ecology as a given during our childhood.  When I was in middle school and high school I volunteered, then interned at Point Reyes National Seashore, near my home.  I had amazing mentors, particularly two women who supervised my program and who gave me immense encouragement to explore the sciences and to just enjoy being in the Park and experiencing nature firsthand.  I got a BS in soil science in coastal Northern California and worked for two years in a research lab studying wetlands in California and Oregon, then had the opportunity to continue the work in graduate school at CSU.  I like watershed science because it allows me to be a bit of a generalist—some geology, some botany, some ecology, some policy.