Growing up on the Connecticut River, I  developed a curiosity for the aquatic world at an early age. This curiosity eventually molded into an interest in fisheries biology, thanks to my undergraduate career at Northeastern University. Over the next few years I worked on a wide array of projects, took a plethora of marine science classes, and traveled to a variety of ecosystems exploring this passion. While traveling with Northeastern University’s Three Seas Program, I was exposed to an assortment of topics and ultimately determined that I wanted to work in fisheries science. After developing a strong ecological background, I spent the following summer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Francis Juanes’ laboratory. I mainly worked on a project dealing with the mercury content and diet of large pelagic predators such as the bluefin tuna, mako shark and mahi mahi.

Eight months after my internship at UMass, I found myself working full-time with Dr. Jonathan Grabowski, a fisheries ecologist out of Northeastern University. During this intern period, I was involved with a variety of projects, most notably a stable isotope analysis of mud crabs and oysters, a meta-analysis on the potential connection between biodiversity and fisheries catch, an oyster transplant experiment along the east coast of the United States and my own research dealing with the diets of striped bass.

Post-undergrad, I traveled to Panama with the Three Seas Program once again. However, this time I was hired as a teaching assistant for two classes, Oceans and Coastal Processes and Coral Reef Ecology.

Now, I am currently working towards my PhD under Dr. Grabowski at Northeastern University. My graduate work takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining the recreational and commercial Striped Bass fisheries in New England and their potential connections to other fisheries, like the American Lobster fishery in the Gulf of Maine. Components of this dissertation involve ecological surveys, laboratory work, and human-dimensions research to examine how the Striped Bass, embedded within a complex social-ecological system, interacts with the ecosystem, resource users, and governance system.