Originally from Connecticut I have spent much of my adult life living abroad. After completing a B.S. in Marine Biology from the University of North Carolina Wilmington I went on to join the Peace Corps. I spent three years working on conservation projects in Madagascar, including environmental education. Upon returning to the USA I spent time as an aquarium educator before returning to school for a Masters of Applied Science in Protected Areas Management at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. In the two years spent on the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef I had many exciting adventures in both the land and sea. Here I earned my advanced SCUBA certification and took up underwater photography while getting mere feet away from dwarf minke whales. When I finished my degree I made the decision to move to Hawaii, where I was eventually hired by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to head up education and outreach for the Marine National Monuments of the Pacific. Here in paradise I met my partner and had my son. An amazing six years went by and my partner, a member of the military, was stationed in San Diego, It was here I decided to become a formal educator, after so much time spent in non-formal education. I started teaching with High Tech High at the Chula Vista campus as a biology and environmental science teacher.