Welcome/Bienvenidos

I am a Boricua (Puerto Rican) geologist whose work sits at the intersection of ethnogeology, cave and karst science, place‑based education, and efforts to broaden participation and diversity within the geosciences. My research approaches caves and karst landscapes as dynamic natural laboratories that preserve hydrological, paleoclimatic, geochemical, and anthropogenic archives, offering a powerful framework for examining relationships between society, culture, and Earth systems.

I earned my undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences, with a minor in Marine Biology, from the Universidad Ana G. Méndez in Puerto Rico (formerly Universidad Metropolitana). I then completed an M.S. in Geology at the University of Vermont, where my research focused on geochemistry. I received my Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from Arizona State University, where my doctoral work centered on ethnogeology and culturally framed geological interpretations among long‑term residents of karst landscapes in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

My scholarship is inherently multidisciplinary and collaborative, drawing on projects in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Brazil, and the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. These efforts integrate LiDAR‑SLAM–based cave mapping, diverse archaeological collaborations, paleoclimate reconstruction, and geochemical characterization of speleothems. A central component of my work is the active engagement of undergraduate students and community partners as co‑researchers, fostering collaborative research environments grounded in local knowledge and place‑based learning.

I am currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Geology and Environmental Science at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  I joined JMU in 2018