Hey!

I’m so glad you’re here. And I bet there’s a good chance you juuust might adore elephants as much as I do!

I fell in love with a group of wild elephants when I was eight years old after seeing them on a PBS nature show. From that point forward I became obsessed with learning everything I could about them. I collected every newspaper article, book, and research paper I could find that talked about those elephants from my living room in a small town in Oregon while I dreamed endlessly about Kenya.

But by the time I was twenty-six years old an addiction to alcohol robbed me of absolutely everything except my dreams … and it very nearly took those too. Luckily, I found the help I so desperately needed and have remained clean and sober to this day, twenty-three years later.

I went back to school at age thirty-five with a fifth-grade math education to (finally!) become a conservation research scientist and to get myself in a position to save the lives of the elephants who so brilliantly saved mine.

I am a music-loving, meditating, part-time animal rescuer, work-out enthusiast, former executive director/founder of The KOTA Foundation for Elephants, and the author of two books. I’ve now been to Kenya more times than I can count and have had the opportunity to meet the very same elephants who inspired me so long ago. I am passionate about education and everything I do focuses on that.