Professional information can be found on my CV.
I was born and raised in Clendenin, West Virginia, a small town on the Elk River in central West Virginia. Clendenin was heavily damaged in a flood during the summer of 2016. My high school (Herbert Hoover, c/o 2010) and many homes and businesses were destroyed, making the already small struggling town even smaller. My favorite thing about growing up in Clendenin was having the Elk River in my backyard and a delicious hot dog from the local Dairy Queen. A Clendenin Dairy Queen hot dog is pretty special, topped with ketchup, mustard, onions, chili, slaw, salt, and pepper (in that order). Ask me sometime, I’ll make you one.
After graduating high school, I attended the California University of Pennsylvania (CalU for short) to study meteorology (c/o 2014). California is a town in Pennsylvania, and no, it is not affiliated with the state of California or any university there. The CalU meteorology program is pretty small. I graduated as part of a 4-person class. The size didn’t prevent me from taking all the necessary courses or having some pretty amazing opportunities to get involved and start undergraduate research. During my time at CalU, I participated in (and later helped teach) a storm-following field course and did undergraduate research via the NOAA Hollings program at National Weather Service in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
From 2014-2018, I was in Norman, Oklahoma studying for a PhD at the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma and doing research for CIMMS. I was part of the OU-BLISS research group and my advisers were Drs. Petra Klein and Evgeni Fedorvich. I studied nocturnal low-level jets over the Great Plains using high-resolution observations and simulations. I studied as part of the direct-track PhD and defended my Ph.D. in November 2018 for a December 2018 graduation. As a grad student, I was able to participate in several field campaigns including PECAN, mini-MPEX, and Perdigão (in Portugal!). Field work is my favorite part of my work.
After finishing grad school, I became a post-doctoral 
researcher at CIMMS. I stayed there for 1 year, then joined NSSL as a research meteorologist. My work will focuses on applying boundary-layer science to storm problems like convection initiation and near-storm environments. Most of my work is based on collecting and analyzing state-of-the-art boundary -layer observations. This means I get to continue doing field work, keep living in Norman, and working in the NWC, which I love! In many ways this job is really a dream come true!
On a more personal note, I am a female scientist from a small town with a blue-collar upbringing, and I am a first generation college graduate. If I’m not in the office or in the field, you can find me volunteering at the National Weather Museum and Science Center, having a beer at one of Norman or OKC’s many wonderful craft breweries (my favorite of which is the GFS by 405 Brewing), or hanging out at home with my pets. I have two cats (Sir Chester and Arlene) and a dog (Sasha). I also really enjoy going to my local Orange Theory Fitness gym, reading, gardening, sewing, cooking, and listening to too much NPR.
