I grew up in Colorado and can’t seem to stay away. I first moved to Buffalo, NY to accept a synchronized swimming scholarship at Canisius College, but returned to complete my B.A. in Molecular Cellular Developmental Biology at CU Boulder in 2009. My interests shifted away from neurobiology and towards Food and Nutrition Security throughout college, but really developed into a passion as an intern with PROINPA in Bolivia. My experience working with selective breeding of plants at the Molecular Biology lab in CoChaBamba and working alongside community and agricultural development agents in the community of Toro Toro in the rural Andes convinced me to join the Peace Corps. I just returned from serving as an Environmental Action and Food Security Volunteer in Togo, West Africa and am looking forward to applying my
combined food security, science, and community development experience in the context of Aquaponics at Nourish the Planet. In my free time I nerd out over good music, playing in the mountains, the electric cello, and all of the amazingness that being back in the U.S offers, while simultaneously daydreaming of the many adventures left to be had in all the many places still to be discovered.

When did you first become interested in sustainability?
I remember coming home from an afternoon at the World Water Day celebration on the CU Boulder campus as a 5th grader and declaring that I would never waste a drop of water EVER. I’m a little more realistic these days… My first run-in with conservation has since grown into a more holistic and complex understanding of sustainability, and with it my interest.

What are the most interesting/important things that you’ve learned since being an intern at Nourish the Planet?
Trade-offs. Achieving sustainability requires a great many trade-offs along the winding R&D road.

How do you incorporate sustainability into your life?
In small ways everyday. From biking around town, to compost and container gardening, to DIY and re-use projects. Living as sustainably as possible and living on a budget go extremely well together.

What do you want to see change in the world in the next 10 years?
Too many things. But if I have to narrow it down, I would like for fear to take a back seat, leaving room for inclusion, patience, generosity, and optimism to take the wheel in most every social institution.

What are your goals for the future?
I intend to continue working at the intersection of nutrition and agriculture in a sustainable context and applying technology in places with the most to gain from innovation.

If you could give advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Never forget that you are the captain of your brainship! And always trust your intuition.

What is your favorite book that you’ve read in the past year?
Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. Hands down.

What do you wish you were better at?
Delivering bad news, and running.

Name one thing that you could not live without?
The internet, though basic nutrition and clean water make a good case
for themselves too.

When you are feeling unmotivated, how do you inspire yourself?
I check out the stars and let the mind-blowing vastness of it all put
things back into perspective. TED lectures can do the trick too.

What is one sentence that describes the philosophy by which you live your life?
Leap! And the net will appear.