​

Research Interests:

My early interest in world cultures led me to the University of Kentucky where I received a B.A. and M.A. in Anthropology.  While working on anthropological research projects I became interested in methods of data analysis and decided to change focus.

Kentucky bluegrass was traded for the Rocky Mountains and Colorado State University where I earned an M.S. in Computer Science.  The intent was to combine computer programming with social research to analyze data and manage research databases.  Instead, I played telephone.  Communication became the focus and the next 20 years were spent developing telephony features and implementing communication protocols first for Northern Telecom in North Carolina, then for AT&T/Lucent/Avaya in Denver, CO.

​

In 2012 family and friends brought me east again, this time to Ithaca.  After a brief stint at a small biosciences startup, I joined the Buckler Lab in the summer of 2014.

​

Working for Dr. Buckler has allowed me to combine my interest in meaningful scientific research with the computational analysis necessary to make sense of it all.  When the workload and global crop production issues become too much I find the nearest swing and de-stress.