About

I grew up dodging bears and avoiding rutting elk in Jasper National Park. My parents were big on exploring and being outside, and so I learned that pale purple crocuses thrust up from the southern slopes in the spring, and twinkling hoar frost coats the willows by Cottonwood Slough in winter. We bushwhacked into fossil beds in the eastern park, where we ran our hands over creatures that once thrived in an ancient shallow sea. My siblings and I roamed the Pyramid benchland with our Grandma, eating wild strawberries and picking apart dead things — from voles to the remains of mule deer. There was a two-week period when I was around six years old when we weren't allowed to play outside, as an injured cougar and her two kittens had made a den under the neighbour’s porch.

I was surrounded by magic, and wanted to tell everyone about it (Mom says I was a “chatty” kid). I published my first poetry around the age of 12 or 13, and was pretty convinced I would be a writer. Then I met my high school biology teacher. He was passionate about everything from how cells worked, to the relationships between predators and their prey. His love of science was contagious — I went on to get degrees in Zoology (BSc) and Environmental Science & Design (MEDes), and worked as a biologist until I traded the field for the screen in 2009.

I live with my husband, a wildlife vet/biologist with Parks Canada, and our teenage son. It can get a little science nerdy around here: We once dissected an elk liver as a family, which taught us about both parasitic worm behaviour, and gag reflexes.

As a journalist and science communicator, I love to tell stories about nature, the environment, and the cosmos. You can find my work in publications such as BBCEarth, BioScience, Canadian Wildlife Magazine, Natural History Magazine, Canadian Geographic, PBSNature, Vice, EarthTouch News, Alberta Views and Ensia.

From 2017-19, I documented the work of Canada’s International Development Research Centre in Charting Change, a blog collaboration with Canadian Geographic.  I am proud to have shed light on some important issues, while highlighting the incredible people who are making real, hopeful change.

In recent years I have been exploring new mediums, sharing my voice and words to podcasts and radio productions. I was associate producer for the Audible top five podcast Wild Sounds of Canada. I’ve worked as a writer on the documentary series Aging in the Wild with Rotating Planet, as well as an adaptation of that work that aired on The Nature of Things. For two seasons, Jay Ingram and I hosted Anthropomania, a podcast about human relationships to wild things.

You can also find me on the stage, where I’ve had the opportunity to mash up science, art and engineering as a host and science programmer for Beakerhead, and as the host and science content specialist for the Jasper Dark Sky Festival. I sit on the Festival’s advisory committee alongside Rob Myerson, Alan Nursall, Dr. Shawna Pandya and Chris Kitzan.

I enjoy helping scientists figure out how to raise the profile of their work and improve their own communication skills. I am faculty in the Telus Spark Science Communications School, and also design and implement science communications training on request for clients.

I’m a member of the Canadian Science Writers Association and the National Association for Science Writers.