Curriculum Vitae
Life History
I was born and raised in Arlington, VA; a hop-skip-and-a-jump to capitol hill in Washington, DC. The backdrop of diversity of people as well as ample access to a rich cultural city lead me to attend the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University (now the Lesley College of Art and Design) and to pursue my passion in photography. After graduation, I moved to New York City and interned for Annie Leibovitz. I went on to pursue a career as a freelance photographer and worked for almost 10 years; doing photo assisting, setting up a studio in Brooklyn and shooting highly technical still life, editorial assignments, advertising assignments, and event photos for a wide variety of clients.
In 2008, I realized that I needed a change and pursued a new life direction. I followed my parents’ advice, which we should all do much more often than we do, and I took a class in something I always wished I had studied during undergrad. I audited a course at the New School in NYC and realized that I loved being intellectually engaged. It took a bit of exploration to settle on my subject. I enrolled full time at Hunter College, City University of New York where I took undergraduate science and math courses for two years, while continuing my freelance photography business.
I then moved to Fort Collins, CO and earned a Master’s of Science in Statistics from Colorado State University (CSU) in 2013. During my Master’s, an interdisciplinary Ecology/Stats PhD opportunity with Dr. Tom Hobbs at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory became available and I jumped at the chance. I earned my PhD in Ecology at CSU in 2017, modeling elk in Rocky Mountain National Park. Few statisticians get to fly in helicopters over the tundra! I then moved to Madison, WI where I have been working as a research scientist modeling the population impacts of chronic wasting disease on white-tailed deer (and occassionally get to hug deer).