Enjoying the beaches of Senegal.
Aragonite in colored pencil
Amethyst in colored pencil
I am a geologist, educator, and artist living in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I am the Science and Outreach Coordinator for the Continental Scientific Drilling Facility in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department of the University of Minnesota.
My Story
I was born outside Philadelphia and will always love cheesesteaks and soft pretzels. I spent my childhood covered in mud and was lucky enough to travel extensively across the western U.S. where I became infatuated with geology. My nascent desire to study human history was bolstered by an opportunity to visit Egypt in 1999. During those formative years I learned that the key to informing our present is a solid understanding of the past. I decided to become an archaeologist.
My academic journey began at Brown University where I studied Old World Archaeology and Art and Geological Sciences. While on an archaeological excavation in Greece, I befriended an emerging explorer named Katy. I discovered that oceanography provided an opportunity to combine my interests in both geology and archaeology.
After Brown I spent a few years working as a marine researcher traveling the world on oceanographic expeditions. Eventually I dove into a Master’s degree at the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. My research subject was Kolumbo - a small underwater volcano northeast of Santorini with stunning undulating cliffs of layered pumice.
Although perfectly happy to spend every day in the lab picking crystals under a microscope, I had been neglecting a very significant portion of my brain. After receiving my Masters at URI, I enrolled in the Science Illustration Program at California State University, Monterey Bay. I graduated from the Science Illustration Program with a new interest in carnitas and Photoshop.
After leafing through EARTH Magazine at the AGI booth at an AGU Fall Meeting, I promptly offered my services to the managing editor. I worked with the EARTH team for seven years until the closing of the magazine in 2019. During that time I worked on the Geoscience Handbook, EarthComm textbook, Aerial Geology, and countless other educational publications.
I moved to Minnesota in 2012 where I expanded my artistic expression to metalworking, textile and jewelry design. I joined the faculty of MCTC in 2019 and the staff of the University of Minnesota in 2021.