I earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology from Minnesota State University with minors in Math and Spanish. I spent a couple weeks in a field ecology course out in the Big Horn Mountains and a couple months abroad in Ecuador studying Spanish. My undergraduate research project was using mathematical models to describe immigration patterns of populations isolated on nearby islands. I did a Ph.D. in disease ecology in Bret Eldred’s lab at Louisiana State University. My research was on predators and viruses that attack the same prey/host and I spent time in Costa Rica for a tropical ecology course. I did a postdoc with the USDA in Madison, WI under Johanne Brunet and spent two summers traveling through the country to collect samples of wild carrot and study the ecology of feral alfalfa. In my current role, I get to do all kinds of fun and cool things from writing research grants and science stories to coordinating local outreach events, leading recruiting booths, and coordinating international conferences.