About me
I've been interested in biology all my life, I'm thrilled that I have the opportunity to teach it in several contexts...I'm adjunct faculty at Carrington College, College of Western Idaho, and Boise State University. I received my MS in Biology from Boise State in 2010. I worked for a year and half in the lab of my co-advisor, then started teaching.
I teach Introductory Microbiology, Concepts of Biology, Genetics, and this summer will be teaching Organic Evolution (very excited about that, as Evolutionary Biology is one of my favorite subjects...especially Molecular Evolutionary Genetics). I am currently working on a cheap PCR lab for my Introductory Micro lab at Carrington...I've got an ancient thermocycler, some complimentary sample tubes of PCR mastermix, and I'm going to put together an inexpensive gel box. If I get bacterial "barcode" primers to work, we'll amplify DNA from unknown colonies (such as we get when we grow samples from doorknobs, etc.) and send them away for sequencing.
I have applied to PhD programs, and I hope to start this Fall. I am hoping to do research using phylogenetics (and perhaps whole genome sequencing) to study biological problems. Depending on where I end up, I may study how Pythons can regulate so many genes and grow and shrink heart and digestive tract tissue as needed for digesting huge meals...or perhaps the way in which pathogens evolve to become more or less virulent to their hosts...there are many potential projects.
I enjoy being an active member of my church worship ministry, reading, and cooking curry. I have a couple of pet tarantulas (Itchy and Itsy-Bitsy).
