I have a B.Sc. in environmental and conservation sciences from the University of Alberta. I was a teaching assistant at the University of Alberta for a class that taught about animal diversity of North America/Turtle Island (animals identified to order, many [e.g., birds, beetles, mammals] to family, and a set of birds and their calls to species). I've taken several classes on grass and plant ID at the University of Alberta. I also studied grizzly bear nutritional ecology (primarily plants) in Southwestern Alberta, Canada. I have studied the plant Shepherdia canadensis, and published a journal article about pollination and resource limitation in this species. I currently volunteer as a nature interpreter at a nature centre in Toronto, Ontario. I transitioned into sociology to understand the social and political side of conservation problems, and am a PhD student in environmental sociology at the University of Toronto.