I wanted to be an astronaut. From the moment I first gave thought to a future career, I wanted nothing but science and the far horizons. Luckily, perhaps, for those aloft aboard the International Space Station, vision issues and other obstacles have kept me earthbound. Still, the stories brought back from the edges of human-inhabited spaces and the pioneering work carried out by scientists everywhere has been a key driver in shaping my life from childhood to the present.
In 2010, I graduated summa cum laude from John Brown University with a BA majoring in English (Creative Writing) and minoring in Illustration. While a student, I worked in the university’s Arutunoff Library and unofficially audited a number of engineering classes. At least three of the checkouts of Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff were mine.
In 2014, I graduated from the University of Arizona’s Creative Writing program with an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing. While there, I completed a thesis project on the neurological underpinnings of various kinds of “forgetting,” served as a G-TEAMS Collaborative Fellow, and won Best Creative Presentation in the 2013 Environmental Grad Blitz, which is run by the Institute of the Environment.
Later in 2014, I moved to Polson, Montana, where I took a job as Youth Services Librarian for the North Lake County Public Library District.
In 2016, I launched a podcast in collaboration with Tony Colella (a PhD student in Geography at the University of Arizona). The Imaginaries Podcast was an ongoing effort to reframe the questions and concerns at the heart of science fiction and fantasy. The podcast featured conversations with researchers, scientists, and authors. We made the difficult decision to sunset the podcast in 2021, but celebrate the enormous progress made by queer authors in our favorite genres.
In 2018, I graduated from the University of North Texas with a MS in Library Science in a general program of study, taking courses on academic libraries, advanced management of information agencies, database management, financial and human resource management, horizon technologies, information and access service in business, metadata, and more. UNT’s hybrid cohort program made for an excellent fit, ensuring that I both met and got to study alongside my classmates while living in Montana.
In late 2020, my mother experienced a number of complications following surgery to remove a benign brain tumor, resulting in a lengthy coma and ongoing convalescence. I relocated to the Denver area in order to help care for her, and took a job with the Tattered Cover Bookstore in March of 2021. I worked as a Retail Manager there until August of 2024, whereupon I returned to library work full-time with a district in the Denver metro area, and stayed on part time with the bookstore after its acquisition by Barnes & Noble.