How it all started!
Making mud pies with worm toppings for my mom and walking barefoot in knee deep mud inspired a child-like obession to understand the world around me.
Putting the puzzle together
I did everything I could to understand the world around me by completing a bachelor of science degree in Biology at Regis University. Surrounded by Chemistry, Biology, Ecology, Evolution the puzzle pieces of the world started to fit together.
Lets do this science thing...
Realized I wanted a career in science and to help protect the Earth. I took a position as Chemistry lab manager for Regis University!
Exploring the deep soil :)
Started a PhD program in Soil Biogeochemistry at UC Merced asking questions about how climate impacts deep soil carbon cycling.
Fellowship!
Fell in love with radiocarbon dating soil. Awarded the UC-Fees 2-year In-Residence Fellowship at Lawrence Livermore National Labs. !
Landed a Post-doc position doing what I love
Started a post-doc position working on a project exploring how warming will influence soil carbon persistence and storage.
Stared to explore Indigenous burning pactices
Started a project working with the Karuk Tribe, who has been using fire on the land until the fire supression era. I am hoping to help the tribe bring fire back on the land using science to show that their way of doing things put more soil carbon and more persistant soil carbon in the earth. We are also hopig to show that these practices reduce future catastrophic wildfires.
Amending agricultural soils
Working on an important project looking at how rock dust impacts soil carbon amounts and how it impacts the soil microbial life
Asking fun questions about what sticks around in soil
One hypothesis about why carbon stays in soil is because of the chemical structure. The idea is that more complex molecules are more energetic expensive to break down for microbes. So we are seperating soil into different chemical groups such as lignin and carbohydrates and doing radiocarbon on them to see if this hypothesis holds up !
New career path!
Starting a new job as a research ecologist for the USDA California Climate Hub! I am working on science communiction within the NRCS and working on the NIFA project communicating climate smart practices.