My primary professional aspiration is to contribute to the preservation and conservation of terrestrial and marine ecosystems globally. As a professional scientist working in academic research, I get to do what I love most, and that is working with others to gather, synthesize and interpret data to further develop our understanding of the complex interactions between humans and marine ecosystems under a shifting climate regime.I was introduced to the topic of Antarctic marine ecology as an undergraduate at UNCW and from there my interest in the field only grew stronger. In 2014, I began my research journey by investigating mercury bioavailability in marine food webs utilized by Adélie Penguins in the northern Antarctic Peninsula region. Additionally, I studied differences in diet and foraging habitat utilization, inferred by natural abundances of stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon, to support hypotheses related to differences in mercury levels in penguin tissues. In 2016, my desire to continue researching Adélie Penguins brought me to the Ross Sea, which sadly is considered the last intact marine ecosystem in the world. There, I collected ancient guano from abandoned breeding sites along the Victoria Land coastline. The chemical thumbprint of the guano, preserved, yet changing over hundreds to thousands of years, served as a signal of penguin occupation and diagenesis and aided in our understanding of methodologies employed to reconstruct penguin diet.Currently, in the Brooks Lab at CU Boulder, our team is researching the life history and connectivity of Antarctic toothfish, a highly prized fish species endemic to waters of Antarctica. My role involves synthesizing incoming data from fisheries and research activities, collaboration with invested parties in the conservation and management of toothfish stocks, management of lab activities, and development and execution of project objectives. Through my research activities as a student, I realized my aptitude for analytical instrumentation and seized the opportunity to learn atomic absorption spectrophotometry, isotope ratio mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-isotope mass spectrometry. Through my work at CU Boulder, I’ve been challenged with the task to further develop my analytical skills and will soon be adding expertise in estimating age and growth of fish and trace element and stable isotope analyses via laser ablation instrumentation to the list. Exciting stuff on the horizon!