Acted as a graduate TA for WWU Biology 101, a non-major course, during Winter and Spring quarters. Taught the process of science and biological concepts through an experiment on the eutrophication of Lake Whatcom. Students created methods and held a poster session to describe their experiment results to classmates at the end of each quarter. In light of the Covid-19 closures, I converted the course to online. With the other graduate student lab instructors, I developed methods to create an effective learning environment online for the students.

I created a tank system with Dr. Shawn Arellano to hold deep-sea cold seep mussels at the Shannon Point Marine Center. We are studying the dispersal methods of the mussels in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic around a geographic barrier, the Florida Peninsula. I attended Leg 1 of a cruise aboard WHOI vessel Atlantis (Feb 23-Mar 5, 2020) using DSV Alvin to collect our brood stock of cold seep mussels and snails. I was one of the two observers in Alvin during a dive to Mississippi Canyon. On this cruise, I was responsible for animal maintenance and lab organization. I also assured that a daily blog was written for the Larval Lab, and maintained the Larval Lab Twitter account. Currently, I am helping with maintenance of our brood stock at the Shannon Point Marine Center.

Created a project with mentor, Dr. Heather Coleman, analyzing the anthropogenic debris seen by the Okeanos Explorer missions. Presented results at the Scholars Symposium and plan to present at the 2020 Ocean Sciences Meeting, and at least one other national conference. Also working on publishing results with Dr. Taylor Heyl from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Received a variety of experiences such as writing a mission log on deep-sea coral habitats for the 2019 Windows to the Deep Expedition, as well as a blog for NOAA Marine Debris Program. I was invited to go aboard NOAA Ship Shimada on the Patterns in Deep Sea Coral and Sponge Communities of Olympic Coast 2019 Expedition where I was the highlight image analyst. We used the ROV Beagle to observe deep-sea coral and sponge habitats off of the Washington Coast. I helped label and preserve the collected specimens.

Helped write testimony for Admiral Gallaudet for a hearing on coastal resilience bills passing through Congress, and attended the hearing. Learned about legislation by performing bill analyses involving aquaculture and the NOAA Corps.