About
a snapshot of my life
Background
Born and raised in Laguna Beach, CA, my admiration of the natural world was fostered in the blue waters of the Pacific ocean, where I frequently surfed and swam with the local inhabitants of the kelp forests. I started to venture out to the Sierra Nevada mountains where I learned to sit in in awe of its sharp granite and alpine lakes. I attended the University of California, Santa Cruz studying Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (B.S.), as well as Environmental Studies (B.A.), where my career as a scientist began. During my undergrad, I worked as lab and field techs doing whatever research jobs spoke to me at the time. One of my favorite experiences was camping out on a remote island in Baja California where I studied desert lizard and insect communities in cacti forests. I also worked quite a bit in Big Sur, analyzing the coastal California Steelhead communities and diets. And of course, I will never forget living in Puerto Rico for 3 months collecting microscopic protozoans in some harsh conditions. These experiences made me ever more curious, and set the foundation of my Data Science career path.
Upon graduating in 3 years, I moved to Mammoth Lakes in 2021 to pursue rock climbing, skiing, backpacking, and working as a freshwater ecologist at the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Center (SNARL). I learned many of the skills that shape a successful scientist and make one really look at the world in a critical way. And I might have had a bit too much fun romping around in the mountains when he wasn’t working.
My passion for learning drew me back to the coast in 2022 where I completed my Masters in Environmental Science and Management at the Bren School UCSB. I became trained in technical Data Science tools and approaches here where I worked for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries as a data manager. I created a robust geospatial cost model to estimate restoration costs of salmon habitat restoration. Furthermore, I worked as a data scientist intern for The Nature Conservancy in 2023 where I programmed logistic regression models to identify invasive species behavioral responses to predator cues. Working for both NOAA and TNC, along with intensive coursework in data science taught me the skills that would eventually become the foundation in my career as a Data Scientist
Environmental Data Science
Grappling, extracting, analyzing, and visualizing data are ways that one can make sense of the world around them, and that is just what I like to do. I served as the data manager for his masters group project working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries. Here, I designed extensive spatial models in R/QGIS utilizing heterogeneous vector/raster data to estimate forest ecosystem restoration costs in the Puget Sound. Aside from designing the spatial modeling leveraging remotely sensed imagery, I managed the project GitHub repository, metadata construction/archival, and developed a highly interactive Shinyapp dashboard (HTML, CSS, R) to visualize and communicate our findings. I also interned with The Nature Conservancy as a biosecurity data scientist working on collecting, analyzing, and modeling field collected data while mentoring an undergraduate. I fitted logistic regression models utilizing environmental covariate data collected using QGIS and am publishing a first-authored paper with TNC.
In my free time . . .
While much of my life passion lies within Data Science, and hence being on my computer, I enjoy getting outside equally as much. Some of my favorite activities include: rock climbing, surfing, paragliding, spearfishing, running, backpacking, and practicing yoga. While I know I can’t do them all every day, I try my best to at least one of them… or 3. Here are some of my favorite memories over the years.
