I am an Assistant Professor of plant and soil systems biology at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). I received my Ph.D. in molecular, cellular and developmental plant biology from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and I have held Post-doctoral, Assistant and Associate Research Professor positions in plant biology at the University of Arizona (Tuscon) and Michigan Technological University (Houghton).

I became involved in permaculture through my studies of how plants interact with beneficial soil microbes in a way that enhances net primary productivity, a topic through which I have received funding from the Department of Energy to help to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that orchestrate such interactions. My activities in developing courses for the UAH department of biological sciences then naturally lead to permaculture when I began to focus on plant and soil science and its relation to how people impact the environment. This interest then lead to my meeting Alan Booker, a most interesting and extraordinarily knowledgeable PDC instructor.

My course entitled "People, Plants and Environment" combines both lectures in these topics with many hand-on activities at the UAH community garden, which I started with interested students. The course effectively uses vegetable gardening and the community garden space as an outdoor laboratory to teach basic concepts in plant and soil science. From there, we have been developing a "Sustainable Fertilizer Initiative" that produces high quality aerated compost tea using only rain water and solar power.