Biography

I’m from the small town of Sherman, Connecticut and have lived there nearly my whole life. Since Sherman doesn’t have a high school, I attended New Milford High School in the next town over. From there, I went on to attend and graduate from Bowdoin College with a bachelor’s degree in biology. Along with many biology labs and lectures, I also followed some other academic interests at Bowdoin, including psychology, neuroscience, religion, and music. After graduating, in search of something new, I moved across the continent to live in Sunnyvale, CA.

I come from a family of biologists. My parents recently retired from careers in fisheries biology and water quality work. I have a wildlife biologist and an environmental forester for siblings. My dad took my three siblings and I on an endless number of hikes as children, and I think this made the natural world a familiar acquaintance for us.

I feel that passing on the important knowledge and wisdom we’ve gained is one of the most important tasks of life. I began my teaching journey because parents said I’m “always teaching” them. As it turns out, they were onto something! I’ve personally found that education is of little more than economic value unless we can slow down enough and step back far enough to appreciate the profundity, complexity, and beauty of the reality we are coming to know more intimately.

I find it is meaningful to assist students in their learning, as well as to pass on some of my own knowledge and understanding to younger generations. While academic tests are used to measure cognitive mastery of a subject, and it’s my job to help with that, I hope to also instill in students a bit of the immeasurable sense of wonder and inspiration we can gain from learning.

Prior to working as an academic educator, I worked for a river adventure company, and for two of those summers, I raft guided.  I instructed customers in river safety and proper rafting technique before we left shore. It can be hard keeping the attention of a large group of excited people representing every age group, but I learned the importance of repetition, emphasis of specific points, and demonstration when imparting knowledge to others. This is something I have brought into my academic teaching practice.

When I’m not tutoring, I like playing guitar, hiking, camping, reading, and weightlifting.