I grew up in northern Minnesota. In the summer of 2000 I moved to Haines, Alaska to work as a river guide and naturalist. In fall 2003 I moved to Fairbanks and worked as a biological technician for a local consulting company. My field work has taken all over Alaska from the Arctic Coastal Plain to the Alaska Peninsula. Currently I live outside Ester, Alaska with my husband and two huskies.

I am an LTER graduate student seeking my M.S. degree in Natural Resources Management. The focus of my research is to examine ecosystem processes in Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest using remote sensing and field sampling. I am specifically interested in changes in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) as an indication of climate change related stress. My advisors are Teresa Nettleton Hollingsworth and Dave Verbyla.