While I was at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, I found my first home at the Pride Center. I spent many hours finding life long friends, mentors, and myself there. As a Pride Ambassador, I and the other ambassadors under the wing of Donna Braquet, facilitated tons of educational and social events geared towards the LGBTQIA+ community on campus and their allies. Later, when the Pride Center was defunded along with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion in 2016, as the President of the Pride Ambassador program I managed the rest of the team to keep the Pride Center operating during tough times. The Pride Center is where I found a lot of my grit, passion and sense of justice, so I feel I cannot tell a story leading up to where I am today without mentioning it. I wouldn’t be the same person I am today without it.

But after the Pride Center, my second home became the Geography department, and that is where I truly feel I made the first big steps in my career. I stumbled into the Geography department after meeting the wonderful Kelsey Ellis in my pursuit to become a meteorologist. Without a meteorology program at UT, I decided to forge my own path through the Geography department with Ellis as my advisor. To this day, I am so grateful to her and the rest of the department for all of the opportunities they gave me. I was fortunate to have numerous research opportunities, and was even able to present my research at EURēCA and publish it in Pursuit with Ellis and Michael Camponovo as my support.

After I graduated from UT, I went on to pursue my Master’s in Meteorology at Florida State University. This was a big leap out of my comfort zone, as someone that had hardly left Tennessee, but I took the leap. At FSU, I had more excellent mentors and advisors, but one of the greatest opportunities it granted me was volunteering at the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, right on campus. I put over two years of volunteership on my belt there. In that time, I learned firsthand what went into the NWS forecast and even contributed to it myself with my own forecast and forecast discussions. I helped gather reports during severe weather and went on my first damage survey to Port St Joe after Hurricane Michael.

The experience I gained in Tallahassee was pivotal for my next step: applying for jobs at the National Weather Service. Even though I had done most of the duties of a forecaster already and had a Master’s degree, the application pool was extremely competitive and it still took me several rounds of applications. Finally, all of my hard work paid off, and I started work as a meteorologist for NWS Baltimore/Washington in Sterling, VA at the end of October in 2021.

For over three years, I served the Capitol region and its over 10 million inhabitants. The LWX team is stellar and I’m certain I’ll never find any co-workers as amazing as them. Being an operational meteorologist is difficult work with tough hours, but we always had each other’s back, on and off the clock. They were with me during some of my proudest moments, from a personal “thank you” call from the Smithsonian, to protecting the lives of first responders and recovery teams in the aftermath of the Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.

In 2025, I made another wild leap. I resigned from my position as a NWS meteorologist and moved abroad to Germany. I’m still improving my German and looking for work, but so far I love it here and am happy I took another leap.

Life will lead you in interesting directions, but many of its paths first take root in your college years. For example, thanks to the German classes I took at UT, this Kingsport native currently lives in Düsseldorf, Germany. When I finally achieved my (first!) dream of working for the NWS, I was told that my tornado research at UT was one of my major selling points.

Some final words of advice: Don’t hesitate to take advantage of every opportunity you can. Everyone in the Geography department wants nothing more than to see your success. Chase your joy. Find your people and they’ll be with you all your life, one way or another. Anything worth doing takes time, but time will pass anyway. Make the most of it.