I was born and raised among the moss-drenched rooftops of Portland, Oregon and studied languages and art in big cities and small towns around the world, from Los Angeles to Madrid, Norwich to Missoula. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Southern California and a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Montana, where I taught composition and poetry.

Along the way, I became an apprentice to nature and human kindness while living in Costa Rica as a teenager, traveling through Europe, hitchhiking in Scandinavia, and working as farm-and-deckhand on a remote Southeast Alaskan island. My love of the wild has led me on many backcountry adventures and to learning wilderness emergency medicine.

I've worked and volunteered in many fields, including post-secondary education, environmental justice, healthcare, legal aid, and state government. I find the most joy in sharing my love of language, discovery, and the more-than-human world with others.