About me

As a plant community ecologist, I investigate how soils translate climate into vegetation in drylands from individual plants to landscape scales. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in entomology from New College of Florida (2008) and a Master of Environmental Science degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (2018). In 2021, I entered the doctoral program at the Yale School of the Environment, and my dissertation research explores the abiotic and biotic drivers of plant community structure in North American drylands.

My unique perspective on landscape-scale ecological patterns is shaped by over 11,000 miles of long distance hiking. A walking pace is slow enough to get to know the plants and their habitats along the way. Traveling through ecosystems on foot, I became more than just a visitor. Without realizing it, I was cataloging the stories of climate, soil, and disturbance written in vegetation across the landscape. This personal understanding of western drylands informs my work in ways that extend beyond the structured contours of academic study.

Now, as a scientist with a decade of formal field experience across the West and technical expertise in quantitative and computational methods, one of my greatest pleasures is bringing the places I love into the realm of numbers—enriching my understanding of these landscapes by quantifying the patterns I've come to know intuitively, solving ecological puzzles, and uncovering the elegant relationships between water and vegetation that shape dryland plant communities.