I graduated with a PhD in Geography from UTK in May of 2019. Under the supervision of Dr. Liem Tran, my dissertation explored the feasibility of bioenergy crop production in the southern US. During my time as a graduate student, I was a Graduate Teaching Assistant for introductory geography classes (including World Regional Geography, People and the Environment, People and Places), and a Lab Instructor for Quantitative Methods in Geography, GIS, and Our Digital Earth. I was nominated for the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award in 2017. I also received Graduate Student Publication Award in 2015, 2016 and 2019 and the Stewart K. McCroskey Memorial Grant in 2017.