Born out of midwestern curiosity, I climbed west chasing topography, and found big skies and big dreams.

From between rows of Illinois corn, to running alongside the Mississippi in St. Paul, Minnesota, to collecting rocks on the beach in Fish Creek, Wisconsin my midwest tributaries run strong.  I look at my time studying geology at Macalester College as one of the formative bends in my life path.  Through this, I was inspired to meet in person the rocks in Dunedin, New Zealand.  Also through this, I questioned whether beaches could capture a morphological response to tectonic uplift by conducting research along the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa Rica.  

A short aside - the earthquake on September 5, 2012 that generated the uplift (up to a meter!) was of a magnitude 7.6 - quite significant.  However due to advance preparation of emergency systems and the educational efforts of one main seismologist, human impact was minimal.  

Moving from earthquakes to drought, I then served as a Big Sky Watershed Corps Member -  a position created through the confluence on the Montana Conservation Corps, Montana Watershed Coordination Council, and AmeriCorps - in the Bitterroot Valley, a place that receives a scant 15 inches of precipitation a year.   

The beautiful Bitterroot captured my heart and captured my attention.  If a majority of the post earthquake crisis can be averted through providing education, then why not the same for a valley who is historically known for being the site of the first bloodshed in Montana, a land where water is for fightin’ and whisky is for drinkin’.  With the Bitter Root Water Forum, a watershed non-profit focused on providing clean water for everyone through restoration and education, I developed youth and adult education programs focused on watershed education.  

At Teton Science Schools, place based education is touted as a more accessible means for students to approach concepts, but in the shadow of the towering Tetons there could not be a better place to increase awareness about the natural world and inspire the next generation of Earth stewards.