Where are you from? I grew up in rural Kershaw County, SC, smack dab between the historical Camden community and sprawling Columbia, in a little town called Lugoff.
What did you do before joining the Conservancy? I attended Clemson University, studied environmental and natural resources and conservation biology. Originally, I wanted to pursue wildlife policy or fieldwork. But during my last semester, I learned about land trusts and was exposed to nonprofits. I realized I could do something that offered more stability and fewer regulations than a government position, which made me excited. I wanted to have a bigger impact.
I ended up at the College of Charleston for graduate school. After three years, I graduated with a dual master’ s degree in environmental and sustainability studies and in public administration. Lee Bundrick, the Conservancy’ s Senior Ecological Health and Conservation Coordinator, was one of my professors. One day after class, I pulled him aside and asked if I could do a thesis project with the Conservancy.
What was the thesis project? We looked at marsh health on some of the Conservancy ' s preserved properties. We performed field counts of fiddler crabs and periwinkle snails, and we did photo imagery analysis on the presence of the vegetation and species. From this work, Lee and I developed the Marsh Restoration
Decision Matrix, which essentially recommends preservation or ecological restoration for any given area of marsh.
Since then we’ ve had requests from the City of Folly Beach and Seabrook Island to look at their marshland and run the matrix so they can better understand the condition of their marsh and where they should consider restoration.
What has it been like to go from intern to staff? It ' s been a lot of fun! I’ ve gone from working in the marsh full-time as an intern to working in the Johns, Kiawah, and Seabrook Island communities. Through outreach, I determine what environmental challenges each community faces and translate that into actionable items for us as an organization.
What do you hope to accomplish? Since I started as an intern in 2023, I’ ve watched this organization take off. We’ ve added staff and protected so much land. We’ re now dipping our toes into things the founders couldn’ t have thought possible. I’ m really excited about the possibility of preserving even more land of ecological importance through easements, and spreading the reach of the Conservancy to places we haven’ t operated in before. I’ m also passionate about teaching the next generation about the importance of ecological health. I guess I’ m most excited to see where this organization goes next.
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