My deep roots in northern Wisconsin go back to birth. Though I was raised in Illinois, summers were spent in Burnett County with relatives and friends, who happen to own a long-standing resort – the old fashioned kind. As far back as I can remember, this is what felt to me like home. I’ve lived a lot of places, coast to coast but, mostly in northern Wisconsin. My family still has a cabin on a lake in up north and I spend as much time there as I can!
My professional history spans positions...
My deep roots in northern Wisconsin go back to birth. Though I was raised in Illinois, summers were spent in Burnett County with relatives and friends, who happen to own a long-standing resort – the old fashioned kind. As far back as I can remember, this is what felt to me like home. I’ve lived a lot of places, coast to coast but, mostly in northern Wisconsin. My family still has a cabin on a lake in up north and I spend as much time there as I can!
My professional history spans positions within several organizations. Early on, I held the position of Aquatic Biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), in what was then the Northwest District Headquarters. During those years, I also monitored Eastern Timber Wolf populations in northern Wisconsin for distribution and population dynamics through ground tracking and radio telemetry.
I then accepted the position of “Environmental Section Leader” with Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. I was responsible for investigating and addressing environmental issues of concern to thirteen bands of Lake Superior Ojibwa in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. Among other work, I conducted collaborative research with the DNR and the University of Wisconsin around the impact of ingesting PCB- and mercury-tainted fish tissue on human health, and subsequent impact on tribes’ usufructuary rights and their Traditional Way.
I held a Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Teachers License from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction - certified in Alternative Education, Geography, and Broadfield Social Studies - from 1987 through 2013. In 1994, an opportunity brought me to upstate New York where I taught secondary Environmental and Earth Sciences during the school year. In summer I taught hands-on aquatic ecosystems classes for Upward Bound at St. Lawrence University. Returning home to Wisconsin, I then taught At-Risk youth, grades 9-12, in the Bayfield School District’s “Alternative Program."
In 2006, I took a leap and went ba
