I grew up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and spent most of my life there until I moved to Southern California for graduate school. My graduate student work was done at California Botanic Garden where I studied the evolutionary history and biogeography of several genera from the Loasaceae/Stickleaf family. I am broadly interested in evolution across multiple scales, speciation dynamics, hybridization, and plants that are adapted to extreme environments such as deserts or mountains. When I am not studying plants I like to bake and hangout with my cat Phacelia.