I am a Research Assistant Professor of Geoinformatics at the University of Arizona BIO5 Institute. I work on spatial data cyberinfrastructure for CyVerse, collaborating with a diverse group of data science oriented projects in the life and earth sciences.

My research interests include applied use of cyberinfrastructure for geospatial analysis, data science best practices (for reproducible research), as well as metadata and ontology (information science).

I teach workshops to other researchers via the CyVerse Learning Institute. I am an active member of the Carpentries and Research Bazaar Arizona.

A bit about me and my research experience:

My first career was in wildland firefighting. I spent summer seasons working for the US DOI National Park Service as a forestry technician, taking graduate courses in the fall and spring. Later, during my Ph.D. program, I worked as a Fire Management Specialist for the USDA Forest Service.

My Master’s and Ph.D. majors were in natural resources management, dendrochronology ¹ and dendroecology ², with a strong emphasis on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing of large data sets. Those experiences helped lead me to my current position in data science and informatics.