Short Bio

My debut non-fiction picture book, Flying Deep: Climb Inside Deep-Sea Submersible Alvin, was awarded the PEN-NE Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award and was named a “Must Read” at the Massachusetts Book Awards. It was also on the Kirkus Best Books list and the NSTA Outstanding Science Trade Books list. My second book, titled Diving Deep: Using Machines to Explore the Ocean, was also a “Must Read.” My debut middle grade non-fiction, Window into the Ocean Twilight Zone: Twenty Four Days of Science at Sea publishes May 7, 2024. Jellyfish Scientist: Maude Delap and her Mesmerizing Medusas, illustrated by Ellen Rooney, and In the World of Whales, illustrated by Jessica Lanan, come out in 2025. My 6th book is sold but not announced yet. I’ll publish details when I can.

Longer Bio

I spent my childhood mucking about in the fields, forests, and swamps around the family farm where I grew up in southeastern Massachusetts. I built forts in the woods, collected tadpoles and reared them to become froglets, and helped care for the animals and gardens on our farm.

As an exchange student in high school, I temporarily traded rural living for city life in Cebu, Philippines where I lived through the “People Power” revolution that led to the downfall of Ferdinand Marcos. These early experiences set me on my current course exploring nature and culture like the locals.

I started college as a Marine Biology major, but later changed my major so I could earn teacher certification. My first job after college combined my two loves: I was as a Naturalist at an environmental camp. I spent my days facilitating field classes such as “Coastal Ecology,” “Night Hike,” and “Incredible Edibles.” Later, as a public school teacher, I served as the President of the Board of Directors for that camp for eight years. I continued my connection with the camp by bringing my fourth graders on field expeditions with them every year.

A former National Board Certified Teacher, I earned my M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Lesley University and later worked as an adjunct professor at Lesley University’s Graduate School of Education for a decade. One of the courses I taught was titled Science: Thinking with Evidence, a subject that is particularly important in our current climate and is at the core of the books I write. I was the science education consultant for a grant-funded citizen science program at three public libraries titled, “My Own BackYard (MOBY).” (Click the MOBY tab above to learn more).

I am well versed in the work of scientists and naturalists. One summer when I was teaching, I worked as a field assistant for a research project in Estación Biológica Bilsa, Ecuador. I worked under the direction of the Principal Investigator at a remote field station in the rain forest. My days were spent capturing and tagging butterflies and mapping trails in knee deep mud.

My second book, Diving Deep: Using Machines to Explore the Ocean came out in June of 2022.

My third book, now titled, A Window into the Ocean Twilight Zone: Twenty Four Days of Science at Sea comes out in 2024. To write that book, I joined a research team on a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) field expedition to the Porcupine Abyssal Plain in the North Atlantic. As a member of the Science Communications team I helped write daily updates for WHOI that documented the day’s work. I also answered questions sent to the “Mail Buoy.”

Jellyfish Scientist: Maude Delap and her Mesmerizing Medusas, illustrated by Ellen Rooney, and In the World of Whales, illustrated by Jessica Lanan, come out in 2025. My 6th book is sold but not announced, yet. I’ll publish details when I can.

7 Random Facts About Me:

1. I played violin/fiddle for 7 years. I was never very good at it. Listening to me play must have been torture for my family.

2. Once I discovered that my voice was my preferred instrument, I was much happier. I competed in state-wide singing competitions in high school and I played Bloody Mary in the musical South Pacific (an alto part) even though I'm a high soprano.

3. I don’t like raw tomatoes but I'll eat them any other way: sauce, sun dried, roasted, ketchup.

4. I love to dance. When we have dance parties in the kitchen we often play Ozomatli, Michael Franti, or Basement Bhangra with DJ Rekha.

5. I'm super sensitive to sounds, particularly high-pitched ones. They make me twitchy. The same goes for music. I can be in a loud restaurant and identify a a song playing quietly in the background. Others may not even be able to hear the music. This can be terribly annoying, especially when I'm unable to screen out a song when I'm trying to write in a coffee shop.

6. I’m rather adventurous. I love to travel and deeply experience other cultures. You won’t find my family and me rushing to all of the usual tourist spots. We prefer to hang out with the locals and get to know a place. My husband, two kids, and I truly embraced this idea when we moved to Dublin, Ireland for a year. We landed in Dublin having never even visited.

7. I dream of swimming with whale sharks some day.