As a kid, I was always encouraged to pursue my passion for catching frogs, snakes, and bugs. When I wasn’t chasing critters, my family was taking me to natural history museums and botanical gardens, helping me to explore organisms from further afield. Unfortunately, in school, there was nothing academic that encouraged this passion. Luckily, when I went to college at Sterling, my advisor revitalized my love of nature.

This love was further fostered in graduate school, first working on moss ecology at Fordham University and then on leech evolution at the American Museum of Natural History. I continued postdoctoral work on broader questions of plant and animal evolution across the tree of life. My research has led to over 30 journal articles, a textbook on phylogenomics, media coverage by the New York Times, and fieldwork across the globe.

Doing this research, I have mentored over 20 students (high school through doctoral), many of whom have helped co-authored publications. I also am passionate about learning and passing along broad-scale knowledge to students. To attain this, I teach courses on evolution, ecology, mosses and ferns, invertebrates, human anatomy, forensic biology, and biology. Currently, I am an Assistant Professor of Biology at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, where I continue my passion for teaching the next generation of scientists and grow my research in ecology and evolution.

In addition to my love of organisms, I simply enjoy being outside, whether rock climbing, hiking, or just relaxing. I also spend my time searching out the next best meal, or an unfamiliar dish.