My Journey:

Scientist -> Teacher -> Scientist -> Science Journalist

I’ve had a bit of a circuitous path to science journalism. I studied as a research scientist at the University of Minnesota, then moved to Missoula, Montana, to teach at a place-based elementary school. In 2020, I moved back to the midwest to start a PhD in Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I investigate the history of Earth’s climate and sea level.

During that program, I started a podcast about Wisconsin geology and the way Earth’s history matters in our everyday lives. Since the launch of Under Our Feet in 2021, I’ve gone on to write about science and the natural world for various outlets, including with Smithsonian magazine as a AAAS Mass Media Fellow. In 2024, I received the Eric & Wendy Schmidt Award for Science Communication Excellence from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine for my reporting in Under Our Feet on the science, history, and impacts of PFAS groundwater contamination in northern Wisconsin.

I work in both audio and traditional reporting, and focus on stories that highlight how the world around us works and the ways humans are just one part of a vast Earth system.