I grew up in southern California, and since a very young age, I have always been fascinated by plants and growing them. As a kid, I could be found dissecting flowers and germinating seeds. I was obsessed with growing cacti, sunflowers, and apple trees. By high school, I knew I wanted to study botany. It was also during high school that I first learned about California native plants, and since then, my fascination with California’s native flora has grown. I love hiking and botanizing California’s wildlands.

I hold an M.S. in Environmental Science with an emphasis in botany from CSUDH. My master’s research focused on bryophytes (non-vascular land plants) and biological soil crust of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Since then, I have worked as a consulting botanist, a naturalist for the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy (PVPLC), as an independent field botany researcher, and a temporary plant systematics lecturer at CSULB & CSUF. Currently, I am the seed farm manager/field botanist for the PVPLC. I have recently described two new species of plants (Erigeron palosverdensis & Verbena gemmea) and have co-authored another (Erythranthe neoglaucescens). Recently, I finished writing an efield guide to the native vascular plants of the Palos Verdes Peninsula (which is found on this website and is free to download) and published a bryophyte flora of the Palos Verdes Peninsula (link to the flora on the bryophyte page).

In my free time, I grow native plants (if you want to know them, you have to grow them!) and hike the Palos Verdes Peninsula studying its flora with my son Bryum (yes, he really is named after the moss genus Bryum). I hope to see you in the field.

Cheers!