Hello! I am thrilled and extremely grateful to have joined the 27J & Rodger Quist teams as an 8th-grade science teacher. I grew up in Longmont, CO and graduated with a B.A. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2017. I was very fortunate to be involved in extensive education research and curriculum development as an undergraduate and also had the opportunity to author/edit a published eBook, "Case Studies in Evolution" (it's available on iTunes). I have found long-lived satisfaction in teaching and learning and enjoy sharing my enthusiasm with others. I am eager to teach, learn, and create with my students, so that they may become the kind, confident, optimistic, and purposeful adults of the future.

As a biologist, I love plants & animals, but have a serious soft spot for microorganisms like bacteria and fungi. Prokaryotic organisms (i.e. Bacteria and Archaea) are the most successful, abundant, and ancient organisms on Earth - the oldest prokaryotes date back to around 3.5 billion years ago...that's old! The human body contains trillions of microorganisms — outnumbering human cells by 10 to 1...that's a lot of organisms! Some microorganisms contribute to illness, but others are vital to human survival - without some of them we might not be able to digest our own food and could totally croak. Microorganisms rule!

"Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy." - Fred De Witt Van Amburgh