I feel that I am just beginning my career in environmental education, although I've been partipating somewhat informally over the last decade as a divemaster and digital marketing specialist.

I worked as a PADI Divemaster in Costa Rica and Australia, where we did our best to teach eco-friendly practices relevant to scuba divers, with the ultimate goal of connecting divers with the awe, wonder, and beauty of the natural world. I also served as the Head of Content & Community at 12 Tides, an *aspiring regenerative kelp chip startup out of San Francisco. Over the years, I've freelanced for other mission-driven brands dedicated to creating a better world—such as a progressively sustainable seafood company, a jewelry company that partners with artisans in Malawi,Africa, the author of a book on kindness and honesty, and more. 

The highlights of my career came from watching scuba divers emerge from the Great Barrier Reef in awe and excitement, a startling difference to their state before entering the water—and also, from the die-hard community of superfans we built at 12 Tides, that would do just about anything for kelp (even get tattoos of it, which raised $30k for kelp forest restoration in California).

I have always loved nature, and believe that I've contributed to its wellbeing in some indirect ways—yet I can't help but notice the urgency needed amidst the current state of the world, and want to contribute in more direct and impactful ways. And so, I'm embarking on my graduate school journey to a) better understand how to make a meaningful impact, and b) begin a new career dedicated to helping heal people and the planet (as I believe they go hand-in-hand). I'm really interested in spirituality, unifying diverse perspectives, and healing ourselves (humanity) in a way that simultanesouly heals the planet. 

“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as our culture defines it.” (Orr 2004)

“Our culture does not nourish that which is best or noblest in the human spirit. It does not cultivate vision, imagination, or aesthetic or spiritual sensitivity. It does not encourage gentleness, generosity, caring, or compassion. Increasingly in the late twentieth century, the economic-technocratic- statist worldview has become a monstrous destroyer of what is loving and life-affirming in the human soul. (Miller 1989, 2)” ~ Ron Miller

"In Aldo Leopold’s words, does the graduate know that “he is only a cog in an ecological mechanism? That if he will work with that mecha- nism his mental wealth and his material wealth can expand indefinitely?" (Orr, 2004)