Profile

• Time Zone

  Mountain

  
  
• Organization

  USDA Forest Service

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I have always been fascinated by plants because I love being outside. I went to college at the university of Colorado, Boulder where I studied Ecology and Evolutionary Biology as well as minoring in Visual Arts. While in college I began doing research, working with a professor and PHD student to study the impacts of early snowmelt and warming on lifecycle timing of alpine flowers. I love this work because I get to spend time outside in beautiful places. After college I began working with the US Forest Service and currently live in Boise, Idaho where I am a crew leader for a field crew monitoring an ecology research project. My passions outside of work include hiking, rock climbing, and painting.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is a typical day like for you?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  It varies a lot! In the summer I get up early and head to work, which is often very close to home since many jobs provide housing. I check in with my coworkers about our plan for the day. Most days we take one of the work trucks and drive out to a research site. We hike into the site and collect data such as measuring tree diameters or doing plant community surveys. Sometimes we work with existing sampling equipment, complete maintenance on remote sensors, or collect physical samples. I am almost always outside and I almost always work with a team or field partner. In the winter things are very relaxed. I work from home a lot to clean and process data from the summer. I also go into the lab to do lab work like counting and sorting seeds or scanning leaf samples with a fancy scanner.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  Do you have advice for students about preparing for a science career?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  You don't have to wait for college to start doing really cool science things! There are tons of study abroad programs, summer research opportunities, and independent study programs for high school and even middle school students-- and I promise they are way more fun than normal school. Many of them offer full scholarships if you get in and offer opportunities to travel all over the country or the world! These programs are tons of fun and can also help you decide what you want to study before going to college, or make your application stand out. Ask me about some examples!

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What lessons have you learned in your career about how science works?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  Write down everything you can! Keep a calendar of what you worked on each day or week. It seems like you would remember what day you put new sensors in those batteries but come fall it's hard to keep everything straight. Always plan for mistakes. You can aim for perfect data collection but we are all human and you will make errors, having a clear protocol ahead of time for how you will deal with errors in your collection and data ensures that you can still have a quality product.

  
  
• Help represent the outreach efforts of your societies. Please click all those organizations you are a member of:

  (not set)

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  2

  
  

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