I am a lead academic advisor at Cal Poly Humboldt, mentoring academic advisors, and advising first and second year students majoring in biological sciences. I enjoy getting to know them, connecting them to resources to help with academic and career-related success, and facilitating their progress toward graduation.I have worked at Cal Poly Humboldt since 2011. My first position here, as Fieldwork Coordinator of the Secondary Education Credential Program, had me working with students earning their teaching credentials, empowering them to grow and develop into educational professionals who advocate for their students and create positive change in schools. I spent a year working as Assessment and Accreditation Coordinator, preparing for a successful accreditation site visit from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing in 2015.I completed a Master's Degree in Education in 2011, focusing on future teachers' experience being bullied, and how that influences their approach to confronting bullying in their own classrooms. I also studied character education, and how schools can provide opportunities for learning in non-academic areas, seeing the whole student and helping them grow. Prior to my graduate education, I taught Integrated Science 1 and 2, and English Language Development for three years at the high school level. My undergraduate work focused on biology, specifically ornithology. After college, I worked for one year as a professional ornithologist in the field until a knee injury confined me to indoor work. I still love learning about and watching birds in my free time.