I graduated from Suncoast High School in Riviera Beach, FL, with an IB Diploma. I completed a dual-degree program at the University of Florida in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation as well as Zoology, with a minor in Chemistry. In college, I worked for a radioactive chemistry lab, working with isotopes in analyzing chemical levels in crop plants as well as research in fire ecology and native bird survivability. Briefly after college I worked for a state crime lab analyzing samples from performance animals, looking for illicit drugs using thin-layer chromatography. I left Florida to start a Masters Degree program at the University of Georgia, working with molecular biology techniques to attempt to identify the gene of interest in a cerebellar abiotrophy in pure-bred dogs. While I did that, I completed training as an Emergency Medical Technician and took coursework in Wilderness Search and Rescue at the University of West Georgia. I started a dual degree in veterinary medicine and graduate school, earning a DVM/PhD. My doctoral work was with viral diseases in white-tailed deer. I have spent the last two years in a residency program with the veterinary medical teaching hospital at UC-Davis, and I am now completing my final year of training here in San Diego studying conservation medicine.

I have tutored students at all levels, from middle school to graduate school, and I have formally lectured undergraduates, graduate students, veterinary students, and technical college students. I love learning and am an enthusiastic teacher. My teaching philosophy, in a nutshell, centers on involving the student learner. How do they think? What interests them? Engaging students and working to avoid frustrating them is vital to effective teaching. It can be very challenging in a classroom setting, but in tutoring, it is usually a thoroughly adaptable method and enjoyable all around!