Pre-College 

VECO, Huston Contracting: I worked construction as an electrical hand and instrument fitter for the oil companies, working in Prudhoe Bay Alaska. As I had already committed to a life focused on improving the planet there was a period of self-loathing with this. I have learned over the years that the solutions to climate change cannot be solved by flipping the switch on fossil fuels, but will be a gradual process which will require fossil fuels to get there. Big oil and fossil fuels have revolutionized every industry, with many of the products not yet having a resonable replacement. The process of reducing fossil fuels to an "essential only" applications must be the goal long term.

Lynwood Veterinary, And Quilceda Veterinary: More aligned with my aspirations was my work at the veterinary clinics. Because I wished to be a vet, I began working as a veterinary assistant. I aided in basic medicine administering, blood draws, and participated in surgeries. This work was invaluable for me to ultimately decide not to be a vet. I loved the work and the people I worked with but saw the struggle of the professionals in this industry to operate with the respect they deserved. This work helped me to better direct my education.

Career

Intracel Corporation: With my degree in hand my pursuit of first jobs was daunting, but I found a position near my home at a small biotech company. They specialized in the production of testing kits for the medical industry. My initiation into this space was as a cell culturist, producing primary cell lines to be used in these test kits. I quickly advanced and was soon in charge of the Hybridoma cultures, where I grew the cell lines for 30 different tests. I then harvested and concentrated the antibodies for each of these, with a final confirmation using ELISA.

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: I began my time at the Fred Hutchinson using the skills I had learned at Intracel. I was hired to run and develop ELISA's for the shared resource facility. We provided cytokine analysis for murine and human tissue with over 30 analytes. These were mostly developed in-house. I advanced to the Proteomics lab where I gained skills in organic chemistry in the production of peptides for epitope mapping. This was also a share resource laboratory where peptides were made to order. This position required HPLC and Mass Spectrometry applications which I had not possessed prior. My final advancement found me in a research lab where all my previous skills were utilized. This position had me designing murine and cell culture experiments with the goal of identifying sensitivities to kidney injury under varying insult. This was highly applicable to cancer research as chemotherapy and radiation induce severe injury to the body. These tests are looking beyond a treatments ability to destroy cancer, giving insight to the organ survivability/damage of some of these extreme treatments. 

Weyerhaeuser Corporation: I joined the Propagation of High Value Trees division at Weyerhaeuser to bring some of my expertise to plant embryology. This division was tasked with the goal of mass producing superior clonal progeny for future Loblolly Pine and Douglas Fir. There were two key aspects of this work, first was to conduct the embryogenesis which produced the clonal progeny, second was to develop a delivery method for these embryos. I worked on both wings of this research with my primary contribution being bringing biochemical analysis to the research. I help spearhead the advancement of the metabolomic profiling of the embryos in an attempt to assess viability. 

Waters Corporation: Waters is one of the premier providers of analytical laboratory equipment in the world. I was brought on to help install and repair their mass spectrometry equipment. I had knowledge of mass specs from previous work and was able to apply this knowledge to this position. I travelled the country successfully providing solutions to customers having difficulty with, or requiring new equipment. This work continued to expand my understanding of analytical chemistry and physics.