I grew up playing soccer in the suburbs of Los Angeles and moved to Santa Cruz in 1995 to attend UCSC where I graduated in 1997 with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. Since graduation I have been employed at the Arboretum and am currently the Curator of the California Native Plant Collection and Amah Mutsun Relearning Program. My focus is on the conservation, education, and indigenous historical ecology of California native plants as well as assisting the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band in their efforts to relearn their ethnobotany and traditional resource and environmental management practices, and educating students and the general public about California Indian lifeways.

I am also currently a graduate student in the Environmental Studies Doctoral Program at UCSC. My area of research is the contemporary efforts of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band to relearn their ethnobotany and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and how the relearning of this knowledge can be beneficial to both the Tribe and other indigenous groups, as well as modern day conservation, restoration, and preservation efforts of land managers.