About

I am an applied meteorologist and climatologist with the California Geological Survey since 2023. My work focuses on understanding, forecasting, and monitoring precipitation associated with geohazards such as landslides and postfire debris flows.

From 2020-2022, I worked as Academic Program Manager at the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In this position, my colleagues and I research synoptic to mesoscale drivers of extreme precipitation in the western US and their impacts on flooding, geohazards, and water resources.

From 2011 to 2020, I worked in various roles at the Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada, and ultimately as Regional Climatologist and Assistant Research Professor of Atmospheric Sciences. At the WRCC, I provided climate services, conducted applied research on western US climate, and developed tools for interpretation and visualization of climate data.

When I am not watching the weather, I enjoy surfing, trail running, dancing, mountain biking, and snowboarding.

Education

2018: PhD, Atmospheric Science, University of Nevada, Reno.
Dissertation title: Characteristics of extreme precipitation in southern California and applications to post-fire debris flows, shallow landslides, and water resources

2013: MS, Atmospheric Science, University of Nevada, Reno.
Thesis title: A climatology of 500 hPa closed lows in the northeast Pacific, 1948-2011.

2007: Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Secondary Science Education, University of Hawaii, Manoa.

2004: BA, Geography and Spanish, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Skills and Training

Skilled project manager; have led teams of <10 members a remote setting, responsibilities have included budgeting, staffing, reporting, resolving issues and overcoming roadblocks, and achieving deliverables on time and within budget
Adept at networking, developing and maintaining partnerships with academic research partners, agency partners, media, and funding agencies
Experienced Python programmer, competent in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript
Worked with local, national, and international print and television media on weather and climate topics, participant in media trainings offered at my institutions
Value and continue to study effective graphic communication, have taken coursework in Adobe Illustrator and InDesign
Firefighter Type II qualification, prescribed fire volunteer with Good Fire Alliance, participant in Santa Barbara TREX (2022)
Participant in American Meteorological Society Science Policy Colloquium (2016), a training in communicating science to policy makers
Completed training with Nielsen-Norman Group in user experience for web-based applications

Service

Member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Landslides (2025)
Lead coordinator for the 2024 Establishing Directions in Postfire Debris-Flow Science conference, which brought together over 90 scientists from North America in an interactive conference to chart directions for research, modeling, and data collection
Lead coordinator for the 2018 American Association of State Climatologists Annual Meeting in Santa Rosa, CA, ~100 people
Planning committee for 2020 After the Flames Workshop and 2020 Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations Annual meeting, 2016 International Atmospheric River Conference, 2019 AMS Applied Climatology Meeting

Served on AMS Applied Climate Committee from 2018-2020
Reviewer for Earth’s Future, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Science Advances, Monthly Weather Review, Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, Environmental Science and Policy, Geophysical Research Letters, and Earth Interactions.
Board Member for The Courage Project, a non-profit with a goal of using outdoor experiences and evidence-informed behavioral healthcare to enhance the lives of children who experience anxiety and depression.
Member of American Meteorological Society, American Association of State Climatologists, American Geophysical Union, Floodplain Management Association