About me
My passion for learning and discovery stems from my personal journey, education and mentoring experiences. I grew up in the small town of Powdersville in the South Carolina "upstate", at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I spent countless hours fishing the Chattooga River (origin from the Cherokee word for the river, “Tsa-tu-ge”, which means “we crossed here"). I am a first generation college student. Growing up in rural areas, neither of my parents had the opportunity to attend high school and family circumstances led them to pursue work in nearby cities as teenagers. My mom is from a small island (30 km2, population ~6,000) in the Eastern Visayas region (Waray-Waray people) of the Philippines. My dad joined the Air Force without a high school diploma, where he earned an associate degree, served in Vietnam, and met my mom during deployment.
Like many of my relatives I was destined to become a carpenter, yet I attended college based on the last minute opportunity to walk on the baseball team at Francis Marion University (FMU), a regional state school in South Carolina. While baseball didn’t work out, I serendipitously enrolled in a summer tropical field course taught by Travis Knowles (Biologist) and Scott Brown (Geographer) that went to Costa Rica. That class opened my eyes to a world of possibilities in science I hadn’t known existed as a first-generation college student. It was then I realized I wanted to become a scientist. I graduated from FMU with a BA double majoring in Economics and International Studies with a minor in Biology.
After a short stint delivering stair parts and lumber, I found advertised on the Texas A&M job board a master’s project funded by the National Science Foundation, and through the University of Louisiana at Monroe (ULM) to study a social mammal (Octodon degus) in Chile. One of the most rewarding aspects of that experience was mentoring other first-generation students in international research. Immersing oneself in different cultures and languages is truly a humbling and transformative experience of —something I believe all students should have access to. The University of Kentucky supports this vision by offering global learning opportunities through programs like UK Education Abroad.
I earned my Ph.D. at the University of New Mexico, drawn to the stunning landscapes and the region’s rich Native American and Hispanic cultures. I was fortunate to receive a fellowship from the National Institutes of Health, Program in Interdisciplinary Biological and Biomedical Sciences, which allowed me to develop the quantitative, computational and collaborative skills to communicate with scientists across disciplines and backgrounds. This experience shaped my interdisciplinary graduate work in human macroecology among other perspectives on life.
Mentoring is one of the most rewarding aspects of my career. I’ve worked with dozens of students from a range of backgrounds, including many first-generation college students. I learn as much from my mentees as they learn from me. I'm fortunate to advise student projects, many of which involve field research in the southern Appalachians and elsewhere. We explore biodiversity science using a variety of tools and aim to communicate our findings to broad audiences. I also help my students discover opportunities in science, providing guidance on fellowship applications and career paths often unfamiliar to many University of Kentucky students. My mentees have gone on to succeed in graduate programs, professional schools (like optometry and dentistry), and careers in fields spanning science, technology, NGOs, government agencies and education.
My ultimate goal is to inspire curiosity in students about the world around them and provide opportunities and scientific tools to explore it. It's a beautiful place.