About Me

My fascination with flowing water began early. Growing up in Maine, I spent every chance I could get either submerged in water or building intricate channels of my own. While my love of water was well-defined, it wasn't until I attended Connecticut College for my undergraduate degree that I first learned how to study a river as a scientist. Four years of learning from river systems around the world only made me more curious and led me to pursue a career as a river restoration project manager for several years where I worked on restoring natural function to river systems that had been altered by humans.  I joined the Fluvial Geomorphology research group at Colorado State University (CSU) in 2019 for a MS with Ellen Wohl where I looked at hyporheic exchange in headwater mountain streams. I had far too many unanswered questions left from studying physically complex headwater streams in the Southern Rockies of Colorado and stayed at CSU for a PhD with Ellen Wohl working on even more physically complex and larger rivers (think 10+ channels and an abundance of logjams) in the Northern Rockies of Montana.

Most recently, I joined the faculty in the Department of Geography & Sustainability at the University of Tennessee where I am eager to add Appalachian rivers and river restoration sites in the Southeast to my ongoing research projects. 

Spending time on rocks and in rivers blends work and play in my field. When I’m not working, I still spend much of my time exploring mountain and river environments where I enjoy skiing, climbing, trail running, kayaking, and backpacking. 

I've been fortunate to work across a variety of environments, with a variety of different methodologies (field, flume, hydraulic modeling, remote sensing, numerical modeling), and with some amazing people (see who I've been collaborating with recently). My research has immediate importance for natural environments around us and the communities that utilize them: understanding the rate and style at which rivers change, the direct implications of climate change, and how much our current rivers diverge from pre-European settlement are all key components of more resilient natural resource management. Geomorphology acts as a storytelling agent of the world around us, and I use my research to communicate these stories. I believe that cultivating accessibility and awe towards our natural environment is a reminder that science, much like rivers, connects us all.