I am originally from the Central Coast of California, but I attended college and subsequently worked for two years in Riverside, CA. While in Riverside, I began conducting biodiversity studies in Malaysia focusing on amphibians and reptiles. From there, I moved to Philadelphia where I got my masters degree studying the biogeography and systematics of a group of geckos on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo. My interest in biodiversity and the speciation process motivated me to be a part of the Biology Department at the UW.