My Story

    One of my earliest childhood memories is my parents reading to me about animal species from encyclopedias. Those were the bedtime stories I begged for when I was a little girl. They were sure I would grow up to be a veterinarian until they saw my focus shift from dogs and cats to pangolins and goblin sharks.

      When I was 10 years old I received my PADI Openwater diving certification and traveled to 5 out of 7 continents around the world. This inspired my lifelong passion and career based in wildlife photography and scientific research. In high school I did a National Geographic Photography Workshop in Yellowstone National Park, worked at the Virginia Living Museum with the education center and touch tank, worked for 3 years as a wildlife rehabber, and went to the SHOALS Lab on Appledore Island, ME to do an independent research study on the behavior of nesting herring gulls and a marine science college program through Cornell University. 

       After high school, I went to the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC pursuing a BS in Marine Biology with a double minor in environmental science and sustainability and studio art for photography. Environmental photojournalism had become my passion. At college, I got involved in four different research projects. As a freshman, I was a part of a graduate student's research studying the biodiversity at different tidal zones. I was also a part of the SED Smithsonian Biome Project which was an international study of 49 global sites testing how nutrient pollution impacts sediment microbiomes and organic matter decomposition at the Grice Marine Lab with six other students. After this project, I was given the opportunity to apply for a grant to be a lead for my own research project, so I became a freshwater sponge researcher. I continued my freshwater sponge research into my sophomore, junior, and senior year which has resulted in publications, awards, conference presentations, and the chance to educate people on a national level about a very understudied group of animals. In addition to my sponge research, I worked as a harbor porpoise behavioral researcher in Homer, Alaska in Kachemak bay, for NOAA and the Kachemak Bay Estuarine and Research Reserve (KBNERR). I started as an intern in the Semester By the Bay Program as a junior, and was offered a job the following year based on our successful behavioral findings and photo identification catalog.  

        My goal as an environmental photojournalist and researcher is bridge the education and accessibility gap between the scientific and non scientific world with climate change issues. I want to use my journalistic skills to communicate the issues to the non-scientific community. I would like  to use my photography to show local examples of climate change for different places to try and destroy our country’s “not in my backyard” mentality about climate change. I want to try and invoke a sense of empathy because sympathy has been proven to not be enough for change.