I graduated from Illinois State University in December of 2002 with a B.S. in Biological Sciences with a little fieldwork and a yearlong CRUI student fellowship accomplished.  The fellowship (Bar Harbor, Maine) focused on the reproductive biology, behavior, and physiology and molecular biology of ion transport mechanisms in the estuarine fish Fundulus heteroclitus.  I have also participated in testing retention of organics in a stream system containing man-made damns and an independent study on sexual selection of the crayfish species Orconectes rusticus.

I moved to Santa Cruz in 2004 and began interning at Long Marine Laboratory and Moss Landing Marine Laboratory before starting my graduate work in the spring of 2007 at MLML.  Although I am still working on a specific thesis topic, my interests lie in a variety of aspects of cetacean biology and ecology with a strong tendency towards sexual selection and social behavior. At the present time, I am looking into a project investigating the abundance and identification of squid beaks in the stomachs of Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis).

When I'm not at the lab, I can almost always be found doing something physically active such as running, climbing, kayaking, backpacking, hiking, boxing, etc! I'm also inordinately fond of pugs and Conducter's Caps.