As a child, Josie loved learning about the natural world and the ecosystems around her in Annapolis, whether that was the Chesapeake Bay or local forests. With the old adage "choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life," she decided to turn her passion for biology into her life's work.
Since there is so much to explore in the world of biology, she dipped her toe in a few pools, each one inching her a bit closer to academia: she traveled to both Kenya and Ecuador to learn more about their agricultural systems; she was a botany technician surveying ecosystem restoration in eastern Oregon; she developed lesson plans at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center for high school environmental science students; and finally, she set foot in a classroom to teach ecology and evolution. At this point, she decided academia was where she would dive in.
Josie loves connecting with students to help them find their own passion for learning about our world. Since she understands that science is not everyone's cup of tea, she aims to make learning fun; she achieves this by infusing her passion into each lesson and connecting subject matter with real-world examples and students' passions outside the classroom. She also focuses on ensuring her students have a solid grasp of the fundamentals, so that learning complex topics can be more intuitive.
BS Environmental Science and Policy