I was born and have lived in Santa Cruz, CA, for the majority of my life. My passions are paleontology and the evolutionary record of life in Monterey Bay, CA, educational administration, teaching, learning, local natural history, including also geology, biology, & mammalogy. I grew up in a castle in a forest of trees grafted by Axel Erlandson and life-sized dinosaurs in Scotts Valley, CA.

My mom & dad built the Lost World park around Axel's Tree Circus but my father died of cancer just prior to the park's opening. So I grew up in a pretty unusual environment; with the dinosaurs, enchanting trees, and cave kids as my friends, and to top it all off we lived in the castle with an animatronic life-sized T. rex on top surrounded by a turret

I attended Vine Hill Elementary, Scotts Valley Elementary, and Baymonte Christian Elementary schools in Scotts Valley from 1967-1975 None of them could put up with me, so I went on to Soquel High.

After graduating from Soquel I spent three years at Cabrillo College earning my AA degree. From there I went to U.C. Berkeley, where I majored in, you guessed it, paleontology.

I spent four years working for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey Menlo Park, doing research on human evolution in eastern Africa and oil reserve research on north slope of Alaska. I decided to move on and returned to academia.

I enrolled in U.C. Santa Cruz and worked toward my master's in Biology for a year, but changed course mid-stream and took a two year-degree in education to become a high school biology teacher.

I moved to Humboldt County shortly after leaving UCSC and I was sidetracked into management at College of the Redwoods, our local community college. It was during this time that Kianna, my daughter, and Jean-Luc, my son, were born.

During 2004 I re-focused my priorities. I networked with my Italian relatives on my mom's side, mostly in the Chicago area, as well as relatives on my father's side of the family in Canada, all of which was very rewarding.

In the time in between then and now, I have taught elementary, jr. high, high school, and university science. I moved back to my hometown of Scotts Valley in 2007 with my son & daughter to teach at Scotts Valley High and to help care for my mom. I taught jr. high school science in the Los Gatos hills for 14 years and recently retired from the traditional science classroom to focus my educational interests into a new company I am building: Pacific Paleontology.

About Pacific Paleontology, 2022:

At Pacific Paleontology we provide fossil mitigation services for your project site to quickly and effectively recover, consolidate and transport any protected fossil artifacts discovered during ground-disturbing activities. We are well-accustomed to collaborating the donations to museums and other educational institutions after seamlessly integrating with your grading plans and construction teamwork on the ground so that minimal schedule modifications are needed for site work to progress on schedule. We have over 45 years of experience working with local and regional institutions for proper artifact conservation. Our skilled staff provide the highest levels of communication, expert fossil recognition training for staff, and thorough paleontological mitigation report administration so that our clients get the permits they need quickly with the best experience possible.

Ciao, Wayne