I come from Portland, OR, where I had been living continuously until I attended the University of Puget Sound. I graduated from UPS with a degree in Science, Technology, & Society, and a minor in Environmental Policy & Decision Making. My major is an interdisciplinary one, that allowed me to pursue my interest of the interactions between human society and the environment, from historical, political, and natural resource use perspectives.

Since I was 16, I have had a job working a Summer Day Camp for the City of Portland. These camps focus on entertaining around 30 six to eleven year olds, five days a week, for between eight to ten hours per day. The camps take place at community centers, and I was lucky enough to spend the last four years at the same community center, helping keep kids safe, teaching them social skills, making sure they have fun, and watching them grow. This experience has really made me value the positive effect a caring community can have on the people within it, and made me appreciate the effect community resource centers and education programs can have as well.

Travel abroad in Australia, as part of a study abroad program, and travel in Kenya to see family has honed my interest in community and the environment. Kenya, Australia, and the Pacific Northwest are very different places, cultural, historically, and geographically, but I think that in each of these places the most important groups in starting and resolving environmental conflict have been human communities. I feel that communities and their environments are inseparable, and that one of the most important ways of strengthening communities is through local, environmental action, and the provision of environmental education and resources.