I am currently in my third year of the Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences program focusing on establishing perennial grains in the Canadian Maritimes. I completed my Bachelor of Applied Technology (BAT) degree in Biotechnology at Fanshawe College in 2011, which fostered my interest in plant science. I continued my studies with a M.Sc. research project in Environmental Science at the University of Prince Edward Island, supervised by Evolutionary Ecologist Dr. Karen Samis and completed in 2015. My M.Sc. project focused on coastal plant ecology, assessing fitness and ecological factors influencing a common beach plant, Cakile edentula, between beach and dune to inform on adaptation of offspring to the maternal plant habitat. The outcomes of this project contributed to the understanding of how coastal plants may respond to progressing climate change impacts on coastlines. While ecology was a new subject for me, my background in chemistry, genetics, and biology tied nicely with aspects of my M.Sc. project, including assessing plant defence compounds and adaptation.

Following my M.Sc. degree, I worked in an array of professions from firefighting to regulatory affairs to teaching a cannabis cultivation program. My last employment was a ClimateSense internship to build adaptive capacity in the agricultural sector. In this position, I developed a perennial cropping system project that I later shifted into my current Ph.D. research with the help of Dr. Andrew Hammermeister (Dalhousie University) and Dr. Aaron Mills (AAFC). My Ph.D project is assessing the establishment of Thinopyrum intermedium (intermediate wheatgrass, registered as Kernza^® by The Land Institute) in the Canadian Maritimes and identifying the best agronomic practices for cultivation and stand management. Growing up in a rural community with family working in the agricultural industry, contributing to the success of our local food systems under the pressures of climate change is important to me, and I hope the outcomes of my Ph.D. research will identify a sustainable perennial crop for the Maritimes.