I am currently a teacher at Lindsay Wildlife Museum, Walnut Creek, California.

My education includes a B.S. in Environmental and Systematic Biology, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. I have also done graduate work at Mississippi State University (ornithology and entomology) & New Mexico State University (ornithology). I have worked for the California Dept of Fish and Game, the USFWS (Biological Survey - now part of USGS) among other places.

My primary interest is in speciation, especially species "flocks", their formation and maintenance. I am also keenly interested in biogeography and the biodiversity of California. My strength is in information synthesis.

I am a (near) lifelong aquarist and occasional gardener with a strong interest in succulents.

In addition to having loads of fun and generally helping in my small way to improve the content of EoL, I have an interest in developing finding-aids for teachers, interpreter naturalists, and other non-specialists.

I am also interested in paleontology. So I can play with that in a similar vein to EOL, I've started a Dinosauria Lifedesk.