I'm from a small family farm in Clay County, Iowa. I earned my B.A. in Biology from Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa in 2004. Upon graduation I spent a year in southern Africa studying rangeland and wildlife management and private conservation initiatives, supported by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. After a year living in Providence, Rhode Island, I'm now in my first year at Iowa State University. I'm pursuing my M.S. in Sustainable Agriculture. My research focuses on the integration of fire in grazing systems towards the reintroduction of pre-settlement fire-grazing interactions on tallgrass prairie. I have broad interests in environmental and agricultural ethics, the role of sustainable utilization in conservation, and prairie/rangeland management and conservation.