I grew up in East Tennessee, right in the heart of Appalachia (pronounced App-Uh-Latch-Uh) During my childhood, I developed a deep love for wild places through hiking and tent camping in the Smoky Mountains and attending ecology camp every summer. I am so grateful my family fostered and encouraged my love for exploration.

Despite my dreams of being a park ranger or working in a field that would allow me to learn and explore more in nature, I initially pursued a business career due to financial expectations and feeling pressure as a first generation college student. In the midst of working my traditional 9-5, I started a website about adventuring while also having a desk job. My connection to the natural world and these passion projects became a lifeline to me during a very challenging time in my personal life.

Like many folks, the pandemic prompted me to reassess what the heck I was doing. I felt like my mid-twenties was as good of age as ever to really give my dreams a shot.. or in other words, completely explode my life.

I quit my job, packed up all my belongings in a storage unit and decided to travel. I hiked the Inca trail in Peru and paraglided with a stranger in Colombia (sorry Mom) I drove myself across the country, and explored the geology of America, from Monument Valley to Sedona, and even took a little side quest to Hawai’i to live like a beach bum for a while and explore lava tubes and Kilauea. To some it might have looked like I was finding myself, but really, I was just remembering who I was all along.

I knew I couldn’t go back to my so called “real life” and instead took another huge leap and decided to move to Juneau, Alaska. I figured if there was any place to work as a nature interpreter, it might as well be “The Great Land”. By the end of the first summer, I transitioned from an office role to a marine naturalist.

Now after taking that leap, I've traveled to over 50 countries- from Everest Base Camp to birdwatching in Botswana and hiking an actively erupting volcano in Guatemala. The world served as a classroom and I embraced experiential learning over formal education. The main lesson I kept coming to was that this planet is so deeply connected and we are a part of it just as much as Grand Tetons, African Giant Tortoise or a tiny ant. Beyond that, it’s our job to respect and be good stewards to all of Earth’s inhabitants, including each other.

In 2025, I founded Women Loving Whales to connect and uplift marginalized people in the marine science community. Now, as a freelance naturalist, I explore incredible destinations and feel so lucky every day this is my job.

The truth is, I believe that beyond occupation, we all have something to benefit from paying attention to the world around us and learning from it. And ultimately, everyone is a bit of a naturalist, whether they realize it or not.