I'm a marine microbiologist who spent twenty years studying how life survives in extreme ocean environments—Antarctic sea ice, coastal waters, deep ocean systems. That research taught me that ecosystems are more complex and interconnected than we typically account for, and that interventions—even well-meaning ones—cascade in ways we don't always predict.

These days, I teach graduate courses in climate science at Warren Wilson College, develop educational programs (including The Hidden Powers of Microbes for The Great Courses), and train scientists to communicate their work through The Science Communicator. I've spent a decade learning the craft of science communication—how to make complex systems understandable without flattening their nuance.

I'm also working on a novel I can't seem to let go of—a "real-topia" set in 2078, after we've deployed solar radiation management to buy time against climate change. The story explores what comes after: the side effects we didn't anticipate, the follow-on technologies we develop to address them, and the struggle over who controls those interventions. It's speculative fiction grounded in hard science—the kind that required me to spend years researching geoengineering, atmospheric chemistry, and geopolitics to get it right.

I live in Asheville, North Carolina with my husband Pete and our cat Cleo. When I'm not writing or teaching, I'm hiking, kayaking, or explaining why microbes are the most interesting organisms on the planet to anyone who'll listen.