Born and raised in Irvine, CA. After high school, attended UC Santa Cruz in pursuit of a Physics, BS. Studying amongst the Redwood forest, I soon discovered the wonders of the biology of plants and switched my major to Plant Science, BS. During this time I worked on the Campus Natural Reserves, the UCSC Arboretum, and eventually in the lab of Dr. Greg Gilbert. My work in the forest provoked questions about the oomycete pathogen causing “Sudden Oak Death” throughout the west coast. Through the completion of an undergraduate research thesis, Greg asked me whether I was thinking about applying to graduate school. He asked “what do you want to be when you grow up?”

Before then, I hadn’t given it much thought. I knew I loved science and nature and plants. I had discovered the intricacies of ecology (the study of the interactions of organisms), and wanted to pursue research in this area. It was the end of my undergraduate degree and I was applying to seasonal technician jobs — I figured I would take a gap year to decide. If I felt called back, I would apply to grad school. In this gap year I worked for the Utah Conservation Corps in Escalante, UT, removing the highly invasive Russian Olive trees from the watershed. It was hard physical work, though very rewarding. I learned a lot during this time, and treasure the connection I built with those canyon mazes. While learning about the project, the rationale for our work, and the impacts of the invasive species we were targeting, it became abundantly clear that I wanted to be on the question-asking, decision-making side of this work. By the end of this 4-month position, I had reached out to 3 potential PI’s to inquire about working together on similar research interests. Thankfully I had the help of Greg to guide me through this cryptic process.

Of the schools I applied to, and the PI’s I had met with via telephone or video call, Dr. Jim Bever at the University of Kansas offered me a position in their program. Jim was friendly and inquisitive in our initial exchanges. He was down to earth, like Greg, and also excited about the research topics I was interested in exploring. I came to Lawrence, KS in early April, when the grasslands were still in winter dormancy stage, and Jim told me about this large biodiversity experiment that was set to begin that summer. One of the major questions in the grant proposal was about the role of soil-borne plant pathogens in mediating plant species coexistence — which was the exact topic I was most excited to explore in graduate school. Thus, I accepted the offer, and began my 5 year investment in the “Dimensions of Biodiversity” experiment.

Along the way, I became involved in a plethora of other research projects. The Bever/Schultz lab is buzzing with thoughtful scientists. There is always something new and exciting to participate in, and/or someone to ask about methods development, or data analysis. At the time, a visiting postdoc Dr. Guangzhou Wang taught me the processes of PCR and molecular work. Fellow graduate students, Camille Delavaux and Rob Ramos got me started with bioinformatics. And by the time I was finishing up with my dissertation, I had mentored several students to varying degrees, including Audrey Nelson who was awarded post-baccalaureate funding to work on a foliar plant disease project tangential to one of my chapters.

Upon finishing at KU, I applied widely to postdoc positions as well as postdoc fellowships. I had heard about a large-scale project on fungal species distributions across the US, led by Dr. Bitty Roy. During the interview, where I learned more about the projects’ aims, I knew this opportunity to delve deeper into the world of fungal ecology was the next step in my research direction. This brought me to where I am now, at the University of Oregon. I had the privilege of teaching the undergraduate Mycology course fall of 2024, where I got to show the students how incredibly diverse the macrofungi are in this region. Now that we are in manuscript synthesis stages, I am eager to share our findings about the effects of climate, vegetation types, and geographic regions on the reproductive strategies of fungi — whether or not they produce sporocarps — as well as differential shifts in functional guilds across these gradients.