I am a Professional Graduate Certificate student in the Earth Data Analytics Foundations Program. I have a BA in Linguistics from the University of Texas, Austin, and an AA in Russian from the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. 

I’ve spent most of my career as a civil servant, which started with 6 years of service in the United States Air Force. Parallel to this, in my personal time, I became passionate about wildlife rescue and conservation educational outreach. 

This led to starting a small non-profit organization, and later a campus project at UT Austin to teach students about native bat species and their role in the ecosystem. I recently started in a support and records management role with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) at the West Remote Sensing Lab in Portland, OR. 

My responsibilities include managing a library of topographical maps and aerial photography, which are used in support of the annual National Resources Inventory. My goals are to continue to expand my skillset in order to advance in a government career protecting natural resources and native wildlife, but the potential to use what I learn in this program for personal projects or non-profit support is also a thrilling potential.