University of Alaska Fairbanks
B.A. Foreign Languages
2019
University of Alaska Fairbanks
B.S. Biological Sciences
2018
I grew up with Fairbanks, Alaska as my home base. Despite living and traveling in
many places around the world over the years, I have always been drawn back to higher
latitudes where I am always in awe of the species and ecosystems, their complexity
and importance, and their deep interconnectedness across regions and with the people
who inhabit them.
The last several years I have been sailing on tall ships and working with youth and
college students from the Salish Sea, across the Pacific, to the NZ Subantarctic Islands,
reinforcing my passions for the ocean, education, science, and the fostering of curiosity
and connectedness to one’s environment. While the pivot back to academia is a big
one, I’m excited to take the many lessons and experiences from years of living and
working in tight-knit and diverse communities back to the community here at UAF, to
learn new things, and to be home in this special place.
During my time as an undergraduate I worked for several years in what was then the UAF Wildlife Toxicology Lab where I primarily did work with mercury and stable isotopes in various fish tissues. I also briefly worked in the Immunology Lab helping to develop some new protocols, and in the Mammalogy department at the Museum. After school I worked for several years doing a variety of ecological monitoring in the interior and northern Alaska, with a focus on botany. The last several years I have run an oceanography lab on a ship, carrying out and teaching students how to do various deployments, sample processing, and chemical analyses while also helping develop and mentor student projects aboard. At UAF I am studying clams in Kachemak Bay, joining a team collaborating with local communities and organizations to better understand these important species as part of the Alaska EPSCoR Interface of Change Project.