I grew up unschooled in the rural wilds North Carolina, free to immerse myself in my natural home. But my introduction to permaculture began in Will Hooker's course in Raleigh, North Carolina where I was studying agroecology and psychology and working as a kitchen gardener for a private estate.

Since then, I have grown vegetables for a software company and raised pigs and goats for a tech entrepreneur while honing my skills in permaculture design and perennial care.

Having recently relocated to the ecologically very unique Santa Cruz mountains, I am exploring this new climate and am surprised by nature every day. My specific interests at present are holistic goat health, low-impact pig rearing, and native plant and animal communities. Meanwhile, I am fiddling with my back yard, tending to the perennials and building beds with dry stack stone. More broadly, I am excited by the intersection between psychology (evolutionary psychology and personality theories) and ecology.