I was born and raised on the shores of Lake Superior in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. When most girls were playing with barbies I played with minnows and dug snow forts! In 1999 I moved "south" to become a veterinarian and earn my B.S. in biology from Central Michigan University. While taking summer courses at CMU's biological station on Beaver Island, I fell in love with ecology, particularly fish.

I decided to continue my education with Dr. Bud Fisher at Eastern Illinois University while working with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources in Charlevoix, Mich. My previous research looked at the diets of lake trout in Lake Michigan and the incorporation of the round goby into lake trout diets.

In August, 2006 I moved to Raleigh to work on my PhD with Drs. Rice and Aday. Currently, I am working on a large scale food web project at Lake Norman, near Charlotte, NC with funding from the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. My current research interests include invasive species ecology, reservoir food web dynamics, and competition/predation modeling.

When I'm not chopping up fish and looking at their guts I can usually be found outside walking a huge Malamute named Kazan, curling up with a good book, getting my caffiene fix at a local coffee shop, or traveling out of the country.