I grew up in Northwest Montana where nature and conservation played a huge role in my life. Montana has an abundance of water in the forms of snow, rivers and lakes and I developed a curiosity about water at a young age. When I graduated high school, I decided to study marine biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa to learn how to effectively preserve aquatic and marine ecosystems. I worked extensively at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology where I researched coral reefs and nearshore fisheries and I continue to study commercial fisheries at NOAA's Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.