About me
Education
I received a B.S. from Oregon State University in Wildlife Science in 1999. My advisers in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife were Dan Edge and Jerry Wolff. My undergraduate research was on small mammal populations in a native wetland prairie in the Willamette Valley. I also worked as a field technician during summers on various research projects concerning the ecology of bats, stream amphibians, and small mammals. I realized the importance of statistics in ecological research, so I obtained a minor in Statistics as part of my undergraduate work.
I liked learning mathematics and statistics so much that I decided to continue it in graduate school. I joined the graduate program in the Statistics Department at Oregon State, where I was advised by Fred Ramsey and Cliff Pereira. I was also a teaching assistant there for a variety of undergraduate and graduate statistics courses. I received my M.S. in Statistics in 2001.
Fast forward several years, and I am back in school as a Ph.D. candidate in the Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management (QERM) interdisciplinary program at the University of Washington. I started the program in 2012 and I am currently working on research. My adviser is Vladimir Minin in the Department of Statistics. Take a look at my research page to learn more.
Work
After completing my graduate work at Oregon State in 2001, I started working as a Statistical Research Associate at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC) in Seattle. I worked for the Southwest Oncology Group Statistical Center on clinical trials. I was part of the Genitourinary group under Cathy Tangen and also assisted with statistical research projects under Donna (Pauler) Ankerst.
I enjoyed working at FHCRC, but was looking for more of a challenge and wanted to get back to my roots in ecology. In early 2005, I started my current position as a Mathematical Statistician at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) in Seattle. The NWFSC belongs to the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Outside of Work
I am originally from southwest Michigan, but have lived in several states over the years. I started my career as a musician, but that was short-lived. I still play classical guitar in my free time. I enjoy getting outdoors for hiking, fishing, birding, and just general sightseeing. I am also a devoted student of kendo.