I graduated from the University of Illinois- Urbana/Champaign in 2012 with a B.S. in Integrative Biology. As an undergrad I was involved in the palynology lab and participated in prescribed burns and other prairie restoration activities. I was a Conservation and Land Management (CLM) intern at BLM offices in Lakeview, OR, Roseburg, OR and Redding, CA for two years following undergrad. The three years prior to starting my Masters at Humboldt, I was the plant biologist for the Quinault Nation on the Olympic Peninsula, WA. My undergrad and work experience has consisted of native plant habitat conservation in the face of natural resource land management. I've worked with natural resources in terms of cattle, timber, recreation, salmon and indigenous use of plants. My research interests stem from my passion for plants, people in the landscape, and the use of fire to manage the land and natural resources. I will be working on a collaborative project in conifer encroached oak woodlands and characterizing spatial variability of surface fuels among different levels of encroachment. I will also be working on the long-term vegetative response to mastication and other fuels treatments in Whiskeytown NRA.