My scientific interests are broad, ranging from evolutionary biology to biophysics, and I have a life-long love of herpetology, which I have pursued as an amateur. Outside of my scientific pursuits I am an avid hiker and camper. I love being outside, looking for interesting plants and animals. I also have a range of other hobbies and interests including bicycling, unicycling, photography, language learning, and creative writing.
Bio
I grew up in Bend, Oregon; in the rain shadow of the Cascade mountains. Growing up I spent a lot of time outside, hiking and camping with my family. I developed a keen interest in nature and the natural sciences. Throughout my childhood and early adulthood, I worked with wolves at the E.H. McCleery Buffalo Wolf Foundation, a non-profit organization operated by members of my family, which has since been absorbed by Wolf Haven International. After moving to Montana at the age of sixteen, I enrolled at Montana State University in Bozeman. At MSU I earned a degree in biochemistry and started doing research in the fall of my freshman year. My undergraduate research, in the lab of professor Trevor Douglas (now at Indiana University), was focused on creating biomimetic nanomaterials based on the encapsulation of peptides with various functions into the interior of virus-like particles. I learned a lot from my experience as an undergraduate researcher.
After graduating from Montana State, I moved back to my home state and enrolled in the biochemistry PhD program at the University of Oregon in Eugene. I did three laboratory rotations in my first year, but ultimately decided to join the newly-minted lab of new professor Mike Harms without even rotating! As the first (and for a time the only) member of the Harms group, I had the unique and valuable experience of helping to set up a brand new research lab. Once we had the lab rolling, I began setting up several tangentially-related projects. I first studied the evolutionary lability of transition metal binding sites in the S100 protein family. Subsequently, I coupled ancestral sequence reconstruction (ASR) and high-throughput experiments to measure evolutionary changes in the protein binding specificity of the S100s. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of my PhD work, I learned to implement a diverse range of approaches and techniques from biochemistry, biophysics, molecular biology, evolutionary biology, and bioinformatics in order to answer fundamental questions about molecular evolution.
I received my PhD in biochemistry from the University of Oregon in 2017. In January, 2018 I started a postdoc position with Dr. Stacey Smith at University of Colorado Boulder, where I worked on understanding the molecular mechanisms that underly the evolution of flower color. This postdoctoral research was an extremely valuable learning experience, providing me the opportunity to gain experience in a variety of new areas including botanical field work, transcriptomics, and computational modeling. I have continued my shift in focus toward plant evolutionary biology in my current position as a remote postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Carrie Wessinger at the University of South Carolina.
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Outreach and mentorship activities
Growing up, I participated many years in a row in the Inventerprise contest hosted by Bend Research, Inc., which won me the opportunity to visit the research campus and interact with professional scientists. It was an invaluable chance to learn about the scientific process in an educational environment. Those experiences shaped my view of science and inspired me to pursue a scientific career. In an effort to inspire a love of science in others, I have engaged in outreach activities periodically since the beginning of my undergraduate education. I was the secretary, and later the vice president, of the Undergraduate Chemistry Society at Montana State. In graduate school I participated in the Mad Duck Science Friday series and several other outreach events in Eugene. During my postdoc I put together a Chemistry teaching lab for the CU Upward Bound Program and chemistry learning activities for the free Summer program at the Pinhead Institute in Telluride, CO. I have a strong interest in continuing my involvement with outreach to the general public throughout my career. I believe that science is made stronger when the public is engaged and that it is incredibly important to give young people in particular the chance to participate in scientific activities.
I have been fortunate enough to have great mentors throughout all stages of my education. They have helped me to develop important skills and given me opportunities for learning that I otherwise would not have had. I have done by best to pass along my experiences by mentoring others, including several summer undergraduate students. One of my proudest moments as a mentor was seeing my long time undergraduate mentee defend her thesis and receive highest honors. These experiences have been a valuable learning opportunity for me as well and helped me to further appreciate the importance of good mentorship. As my career progresses, I seek to continue improving my mentoring skills and incorporate these into my work.
Interdisciplinary science
I have a strong interest in promoting policies of open science and broader collaboration among scientists. Particularly, I believe that interdisciplinary connections strengthen science as a whole. I have found that outside perspectives are often incredibly invaluable.
Statement on diversity and inclusion
Recent events in the United States have made it clearer than ever to many people that our country exhibits pervasive problems with racism and discrimination. As much as we might like to believe otherwise, academia is not immune from these problems and in fact suffers from many issues regarding a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion. In many cases people are actively driven from academic communities by the misdeeds of others and the burdens of a system that carries the marks of this country’s long history of discrimination. During my as yet brief career, I have tried to contribute to activities that help to weaken the barriers of discrimination. I have engaged in a variety outreach and mentorship activities with students from communities that have been historically excluded from STEM. However, I recognize that I have not done enough; I have been more complacent than is acceptable. Going forward, I hope to take a more active role in dismantling the pervasive issues that plague our community. I see the practice of science as something beautiful, an opportunity to learn about our world and to make it better for each other. I believe that it can and must be shared by everyone.
Membership on the CDA Noxious Weed Advisory Committee
At the beginning of 2021 I was appointed to a two-year term as an at-large member of the Colorado Department of Agriculture Noxious Weed Advisory Committee. The purpose of the committee is to advise CDA on strategies for the classification and management of noxious weeds in the state of Colorado. As an at-large member my constituency is the entire state, so if you live in Colorado and you have questions, comments, concerns, or ideas about noxious weed management, please reach out.
Co-organization of the SOL Seminar Online series
I am one of the organizers for the Solanaceae Seminar Online series, a virtual, multilingual platform for the discussion of research in the Solanaceae that hosts an international community of plant researchers.