I am a faculty in the Wildlife Biology Program housed in the Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Science. I am a past award winner of the Bullitt Environmental Leadership Fellowship ($100,000) and now serve on the Board of the Bullitt Foundation. I used the fellowship to conduct conservation research on Palouse Prairie amphibians in Eastern Washington. I was formerly a Co-Director of Southern Oregon University’s Ecology Center of the Siskiyous (now the Environmental Resource Center). While at SOU, I co-led an effort to pass a green-tags initiative to offset the university’s carbon footprint. I have also served on the board of Oregon Stewardship and board of the Society of Northwestern Vertebrate Biology. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies from Southern Oregon University (2007) and Masters (2011) and Ph.D. in Natural Resource Sciences from Washington State University (2020). I am a naturalist at heart and thus have eclectic research interests, including the conservation of endangered species, the ecology and sustainability of freshwater ecosystems, and amphibians and freshwater fish. I am willing to serve on graduate student committees here at UM and for students at the universities.

I am a first-generation college graduate and proud of my parent’s farm working and immigrant roots. I am devoted to encouraging students from under-represented groups to pursue higher education, particularly in the sciences. In service of this goal, I frequently give presentations to students and their parents. I often enjoy giving these presentations in Spanish to connect with Latino communities. I also offer educational workshops and mentor undergraduate Latino student groups and students from the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science. I hope to create applied ecological research while helping diversify the conservation and environmental field.