I do data analysis and teach for a career, but am a naturalist, thinker, and free-lance writer by avocation. Armed with a Master’s in Spanish and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, and having a botanist for a father, I tend to approach the natural world from a humanities perspective. I'm as much at home making scientific collections in the field as doing archival research in early manuscripts.

I'm highly involved with the Austin Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas and I contribute regularly to their NPSOT News. A few years back I quit my job and lived off savings for 2.5 years in order to finish a book that I had been working on. My labor of love, "Remarkable Plants of Texas," is being published by UT Press and will appear this winter (2008).

A fifth-generation Texan, I'm a native of Austin where I currently reside, trying to convince myself that the city will maintain its charm, laid-back attitudes, and "weird" culture, despite phenomenal growth.