I write creative and literary nonfiction essays and books about the intersection of the environment and human experience and am the author of a trio of feminist outdoor skills books designed to empower, equip, and inspire women and girls to spend more time outdoors. In truth, much of what I write about is disaster and catastrophe, particularly the ways in which human experiences of these things are intertwined with the natural world’s expression of them. Increasingly, I write about hope, timescales, and the ways we can understand and adapt to risk.

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Ultimately, my work is rooted in one goal, getting people to investigate their relationship to the natural world and compelling them to take action. I became a writer after more than a decade working on the front lines of the environmental movement as an activist, educator, and specialist in soil and groundwater contamination. Through that work I realized that my perspective as someone who lived and worked outdoors, someone privy to the hidden impacts of modernity and humanity, meant that I had something important and pressing to say. More than a decade after starting my writing career, the need is no less pressing. In September 2020 I watched as chapter after chapter of my essay collection, Ground Truth, burned while we sat helpless, hemmed in by Covid.

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In my life outside of writing, I am a lot of things. I am a first generation American. I am a woman scientist in a male-dominated field. I am a thirty-year veteran of activism for peace and a healthy and just environment. I am a daughter, wife and mother. I am a lifelong dancer and performer, a teacher, and a researcher. I am a community builder. I am just another person trying to make my way. In my capacity as a writer, I am a translator of the landscape, a witness bearer to the impacts of humanity, and a canary song for those of us that care about survival in age of consequence and the legacy we are leaving for future generations. I believe that change is possible.