Atmospheric science is a new and exciting field for me. My first years of college focused on attaining a degree in communication. Upon transferring into UCSB, my passion for Earth sciences was enlighted as I looked to the multiple pathways a career in the geosciences could lead. I switched majors to geography and placed an emphasis on remote sensing. Upon graduation, I was hired by the University of California to work at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) applying remote sensing technologies for vegetion fuel mapping for the FIRETEC wildfire model. Upon completion of this project I was introduced to Manvendra Dubey the atmospheric aerosol team. With a background in remote sensing and Earth system science, I was hired by Dubey as a post-bac student through a duration prior to beginnig graduate school in the fall of 2006. This is my first year working directly with atmospheric aerosols and my duties have centered around MODIS and AERONET remote sensing products. My assignments have included the examination of MODIS atmosphere data pertaining to the indirrect effect of aerosols over the Indian Ocean, as well working with AERONET data retrievals to examine smoke plumes from biomass burning. I have submitted an abstract for AGU and will be presenting a poster titled Optical Properties of Smoke Aerosol Over Los Alamos, NM, Derived from AERONET at the Fall Conference. My future research will focus on using methods developed by Schuster et al. (2005)to use AERONET for extracting black carbon content and specific absorbtion in smoke aerosol. Further study will incoporate an examination of Smoke Aerosol as a function of distance using mulitple AERONET sites during a major wildfire event.

My personal interests beyond geoscience predominately evolve around skiing. I competed internationally in freestyle moguls for a number of years and continue to spend as much time on the snow as possible. During the winter I participate in ski jumping and big mountain skiing competitions, along with a couple weeks coaching the Australian Women's Freestyle Aerial Team at Snowbasin, Utah. During the summer months I enjoy mountain biking, hiking, fishing, playing rugby, and surfing.