Who am I?

I’m a creative mind and a dreamer. I live in Northern California with my family and enjoy the outdoors, hiking our local trails, jewelry making, metalsmithing, and cooking exotic foods.

I have always had a passion for the environment. I grew up in Missouri looking for bugs, pulling crawfish out of our streams, and camping in the woods. I feel strongly that we need to understand and protect our delicate ecosystems so that future generations can enjoy the same beauty that I loved as a child.

I originally got my undergraduate degree in sociology from the University of Missouri. I was interested in the study of people and places, but I quickly began to gravitate towards environmental justice. After graduation, we moved to Kansas City and I began exploring more opportunities to expand into environmental work. I began a Master’s degree at UMKC focusing on geospatial technologies, and my area of interest was Western Siberian peat bogs. I became interested in understanding how the thawing of the permafrost in these peat bogs contributed to climate change. I utilized GIS to map the changing landscape over the years.

In addition to my academics, I began my career working in the consulting industry. I was a LIDAR technician analyzing aerial imagery to locate poles and guy wires for the electric utility industry. At Stantec, I worked on behalf of FEMA updating flood risks maps used for a variety of purposes. Afterwards, I worked for Burns & McDonnell in the substation global practice building web apps, interpreting schematics, creating maps, and automating tasks through Python.

I am eager to put the skills that I have developed working in the utilities industry to use solving new problems. I would love to hear about what challenges you are having, and how I can help you face them!