I am a plant enthusiast by nature from American Fork, Utah. My diverse career journey has taken me from working as a licensed cosmetologist to becoming a certified yoga instructor and high school color guard director. After exploring these various paths, I ultimately discovered my true passion in botany!

I hold a B.S. in Botany from Utah Valley University, where I focused on pollinator communities and speciation of Ericameria nauseosa (rabbitbrush). During my time there, I also gained invaluable field experience through an internship with Young Living LLC, studying bee activity on lavender and monitoring Monarch butterfly eggs on milkweed. These experiences deepened my love for fieldwork and inspired my pursuit of a Ph.D. at California Botanic Garden.

My research interests are conservation, plant-pollinator interactions, pollination biology, speciation, plant population dynamics, and phylogenetic relationships. For my dissertation, I am studying Ericameria parryi (Parry's rabbitbrush) and its 12 varieties found throughout the western U.S. My research goals are to understand the complexities of speciation, hybridization, and population dynamics within this group while re-evaluating its current taxonomy. Through this work, I hope to shed light on the complexities of this fascinating group of plants!

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