About Me

I grew up in Charlottesville, VA, and spent most of my childhood going hiking, canoeing, gardening, playing music, and leading several environmental, nature focused and creative groups and projects from 3rd grade through this very moment. This grew from the leadership of a wooded area in the corner of the playground in third grade, to a knitting and crocheting group, to the environmental advocacy group I started in 4th grade and led for several years, to this project working on creekside restoration. I went to the state capital and sat in on legislative session, directly questioned our state legislative representatives about environmental issues, and interned with a local environmental organization. 

I was the type of child who grew up picking wild berries and turning them into pies or cobbler, always on my own initiative. From the time I was a toddler, I was often found hiking in the woods and mountains surrounding Charlottesville, or canoeing in the rivers and streams. This type of childhood replaced the childhood I likely would have had had I been one of my peers, an early life full of screens instead of streams. I always had a passion for adventure, leading me to bushwack up mountains in the snow and walk miles through streams to find their headwaters. Every year for my birthday, we search for snow and travel to some of the coldest places in the area to do a winter backpacking trip. This helped me to grow a strong concern about the environment and care and interest in ecosystems, leading me to become politically and environmentally active. 

I also grew up in the garden from a very early age. As a toddler, I took a few beans that were part of a classroom material in the Montessori school I attended, and brought them home and planted them. They grew, and we harvested them, saved some seeds, and continued to grow the "toddler beans" for years afterward. This enthusiasm for gardening continued, and for most of my teenage years up to this point, I took responsibility to plan, oversee, and run the large family vegetable garden, producing hundreds of pounds of vegetables per year.  

My experience in the wild and in the garden have both informed the creekside restoration project.