Fun Facts

When I was a teenager, my favorite TV shows were the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and Cosmos with Carl Sagan, and my favorite place to go was the Omni Theatre at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

About Me

After honorably serving my dream job for nine years and ten months in the US Navy I decided to pursue my other dream as a full-time career research biologist! My Ph.D. in Quantitative Biology was fully funded when I became a National Science Foundation Fellow and a Pat Tillman Scholar.

Experience

As a graduate student, I tutored and mentored undergraduates and high school biology students by involving them with hands-on experiences with my lab research on the molecular basis of animal behavior. They loved it!

Approach

I sometimes use pop culture strategies, like mnemonics or artwork, to help students digest a problematic concept. For example, I may have my students color, and label body structures from a terms list instead of relying solely on textbook activities. In many cases, the student can better identify and understand the system's function.