I earned a B.S. in Biology with a focus on Zoology from Western Illinois University in 2006. I also earned a minor in German language after studying abroad in Salzburg, Austria in 2003. After a short career in food science working in several quality control laboratories throughout Chicagoland, I returned to school to earn high school science teaching certification from Illinois State University as a Robert Noyce Scholar, funded by the National Science Foundation. I completed research and a thesis in the lab of Dr. Diane Byers at ISU and presented a poster at the Botanical Society of America’s Annual Conference titled, “Pollinator Diversity and Fitness for Lobelia spicata in Fragmented Prairies” in 2010. I taught Earth and Space Science, Biology, Chemistry, A.P. Biology, and was the Science Department Chair at Simeon Career Academy in Chicago, Illinois from 2011-2016 before moving to Michigan and teaching Integrated (Chemistry and Physics) Science at South Haven High School in 2016-17. After obtaining an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from California Coast University, I became the Research Director at KAMSC in 2018. After working as an Associate Researcher for Science in ATLAS at the University of Kansas with a wonderful and distributed team, I began working at UC Berkeley as an assessment/public education specialist also with a wonderful and distributed team! I enjoy being with my family and friends, adventures, books, music, nature, and trying to make the world a better place!