Growing up in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, I spent a lot of time playing outside with my two brothers. Swimming in our pool since I was a toddler and running with my dad since I was twelve, I have always loved being active. At Elon, I lead intramural sports teams and learned to compete in triathlons, while majoring in Biology. Traveling to near and far beaches with my mother inspired my love for nature and the beach. This combined with an internship studying climate change in California and a semester abroad studying grouper in the Caribbean set me on my path to graduate studies in Ecology. While working to become a professor, I am spending much of my free time finding ways to be as granola as possible. Where the future will take me, well that is hard to say, but I know I will be happy with a bearded red head by my side.