After almost two decades working as a wildlife biologist in Texas and the desert southwest studying birds, bats, and rare species before working for ten more years working as an ecotherapist, mental health therapist, and mindfulness in nature teacher, I now spend most of my time writing and homeschooling our son. I currently live west of Austin in a quiet place in the Texas Hill Country, which allows me to work on writing a collection of creative nonfiction essays about how nature is a refuge, as well as a teacher and healer, as I delve into the complexities of being an adopted person and adoptive mother.

Readers say they feel as if my writing takes them on journeys in the natural world which help them become immersed in the exquisite, often overlooked, details all around us. With my writing, my greatest hope is to help show people how to slow down and look through patient and observant eyes so that they might not only fall in love with nature but also learn more about themselves.

I was nominated for a 2020 Pushcart Prize as well as selected for the Writer to Writer Mentorship Program in 2020 through the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. I was also selected to participate in the 2020 Orion in the Wilderness nature writing workshop in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona. Luckily this workshop happened shortly before the pandemic began, and I was able to attend.

Published Essays:

• “Lessons from a Texas Bat Cave”, published in Sisyphus, Issue 6.3, Fall 2019

• “Saved by a Scott’s Oriole”, published in Flashglass 2019, a publication of Glassworks Magazine

• “One Moment”, published in Leaping Clear, Spring 2020 Issue

• “Ticks Suck! Mindful Birding with Chronic Lyme Disease”, published in Birdability Blog