I was born and raised in the upper Mississippi River Basin, more specifically Wyanet, Illinois, around the region where the glaciers of the last ice-age deposited an unfathomable depth of rich top-soil that we now exploit to mass produce corn and some beans. I made my living working in those cornfields and as a landscaper while I was in school. I left the flatlands after I completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois in Kinesiology/Pre-med, then lived in Kauai working as a sunflower breeder, West Central Idaho as a ski-bum, and Valdez, Alaska as a Sea Kayak/Glacier Guide. I came to Grenada for medical school and once I got here, decided I would rather prevent diseases than treat them so I turned down my acceptance into med-school and did a masters degree in public health. During my studies I began believing that the most effective way to improve community health outcomes was through healing the environment and connecting communities to their local natural resources. This idea led me to permaculture. I worked for a year in Grenada to help start a model farm to demonstrate permaculture principles and took my first PDC with Erle-Rahaman Noronha and John Stollmeyer from Caribbean Permaculture Consultants Ltd. Trinidad (Wasamaki Ecosystems). Now I'm working as a permaculture consultant for a couple projects and working to start a permaculture training program here in Grenada through the local colleges.

I'm also an amateur musician, yogi, kayaker, backpacker, diver, surfer, fisher, hunter, trail runner, snowboarder and foodie :) I love the mountains and ocean but will probably always be a midwesterner at heart. While living in the Southern Caribbean, my focus for now is continuing to grow my knowledge and practicing permaculture for small scale farms & business, self-reliance, and entrepreneurship, but hope I can one day contribute positive impacts to my original watershed by changing the large-scale agricultural paradigm for a more sustainable future.