background
Hello! I am a fluvial geomorphologist, which means that I study how rivers create and maintain modern landscapes. Through my work as a scientist, I have gained a deep respect for river corridors and I am passionate about using art to communicate science.
I am currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Human-Environment Systems at Boise State University investigating riparian corridor response to beaver-related river restoration. I received my MS and PhD while working with Ellen Wohl in the Geosciences Department at Colorado State University. My Master's work focused on large wood and wildfire on the Merced River floodplain in Yosemite National Park, and my PhD work focused on comparing natural floodplain form and spatial heterogeneity across the United States. While in graduate school, I was very fortunate to be selected to participate in two programs that have shaped my career: AGU Voices for Science and SoGES Sustainability Leadership Fellows. I cannot speak more highly of these two programs.
I grew up in Davis and Truckee, California and got my BS in Biological Systems Engineering at the University of California, Davis. I lived and worked in San Luis Obispo for three years before relocating to Fort Collins for graduate school. When I am not in the office, I am probably out hiking or biking on a trail, paddle boarding on a lake, sleeping in a tent, painting on the porch, or getting my hands dirty in my garden.
Artist Statement
My main subject is the natural environment, whether seen through a camera lens, painted on paper, or drawn on a tablet. My art showcases my love of rivers and science, my travels, musings about plants of all types, and the joy I find in bright colors and sunshine. I aim to capture what is seen most but not often truly looked at and absorbed. I look for the way light hits and passes through water and snow, natural textures that reach out of the page to the viewer, and landscapes I wish I could wake up to every day.
In the NEws
November 2023: What makes a river a river? PLOS Latitude blog post
August 2023: Nature-Based Storage & the Colorado River Watershed
April 2023: Where’d the wood go? SoGES HumanNature blog post
February 2023: Changing Rivers website and the San Joaquin River
December 2022: AGU EPSP Early Career Spotlight
August 2022: The Writing Water Curriculum Project
January 2022: From River to Sea: Estimating Wood Cascades
October 2018: ASABE Resource Magazine Spotlight