I am a paleobiologist and evolutionary ecologist that focuses primarily on terrestrial systems of the Paleozoic with a primary emphasis on early hexapods and the evolution of flight in insects (pterygota). I earned a BS in Geology from Tufts University where I worked on several research projects including the paleoecology of a Late Carboniferous intermontane basin, paleoecology and paleobiogeography of Pleistocene glaciolacustrine fossils using varve chronostratigraphy, and the paleobiology of a Carboniferous sponge forest before spending the next several years working in the collections of the Invertebrate and Vertebrate Paleontology Departments at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. I resumed my education and completed a MS in Geology from the University of New Hampshire, Durham. My research at UNH used resurrection ecology and the recovery of subfossil ephippia (resting eggs) of freshwater zooplankton to examine the structure, drivers, and limits of competition and coexistence in natural systems.