Growing up surrounded by Florida's amazing marine and wildlife on the east coast of the U.S., my passion for animals and conservation started at a very young age. However, it wasn’t until I spent a month volunteering with an environmental management team at a small nature reserve in South Africa that I knew I wanted to dedicate my life to saving the world’s last untouched patches of wilderness. Now a fourth-year undergraduate student with the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, I am studying Environmental Science with minors in French and Photojournalism. Especially after the United States’ most recent election, I’m fascinated by the way people perceive conservation issues and by what it takes to change those perceptions. I hope to one day combine my passion for conservation and my love of photojournalism to help shape the way people think about environmental issues both in my own country and around the world.

I’m thrilled to be able to work at Green Fire Science while here in Australia for an exchange semester at the University of Queensland. Since starting my work with Green Fire Science in February 2017, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to work with Sean Maxwell to write a review about the impacts of extreme weather and climate events on vulnerable species. I hope to continue to work with Green Fire Science on more projects in the future.