About Me

I’m an environmental scientist with a focus on responsible hazardous waste management; to read more about that, go to Science.

When I’m not busy with that, I enjoy cross-country skiing, reading, yoga, and trying new restaurants. I love all cuisines and foods with the exception of meat, as I’ve been a vegetarian since I was in elementary school. Choosing to be a child vegetarian got me a few strange comments while growing up in San Antonio, Texas, where plant-based diets were not so common at the time. On the other hand, one thing I loved about San Antonio was that it planted in me a love for Spanish language and culture, which in turn pushed me to learn fluent Spanish by the time I reached high school. Had you asked me at 15, I probably would’ve told you I’d become a Spanish professor, but life led me somewhere else.

A few other fun facts about me:

I worked as a yoga instructor for three years before and during graduate school, and still love to practice yoga recreationally. Unexpectedly, that experience really helped grow my public speaking skills, which were not my strong suit before that.
Before that, I worked part-time in medical records in high school and college. Though I didn’t end up in the medical field as I thought I might back then, the skills of rigorous organization, attention to detail, and paperwork have continued to serve me throughout my career as a regulatory scientist.