I am an ecologist and have primarily worked in shallow marine and estuarine environments in the United States of America. Currently, as a contractor working for Earth Resources Technology, Inc., I manage several restoration projects for the National Marine Fisheries Service's Deepwater Horizon Program. I am a lifelong naturalist, having started birding and playing with chemistry, geology, microbiology, and entomology when I was about six years old. I earned a B.S. in Biology from the College of William and Mary in Virginia (1990), an M.S. in Biology from Old Dominion University (2000), and a Ph.D. in Ecological Sciences, also from Old Dominion University (2011).