Natalie’s goal is to protect biodiversity, and she hopes to inspire others to do that too. She loves being outside, and learning with others about plants, fungi and soils. She first became interested in fungi as a Field Teacher / Naturalist at the University of Rhode Island’s W. Alton Jones Environmental Education Center. Later, she studied ecological recovery at the Palmerton Zinc Smelter Site while earning her Master of Environmental Studies degree at the University of Pennsylvania. She taught her first college course there, “Evolution of the Physical World” and has since led workshops and classes on plants and fungi for Master Naturalists, mycology clubs, natural history groups. While earning a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers, the State University of NJ, she also taught Plant Diversity and Evolution, Fungal Ecology, and Plant Ecology, where she investigated the influence of Cladonia lichens on soil communities and soil function and she designed a Woody Plants class for the NJ Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons Program. After graduating, she taught Natural Resources, Conservation Biology, and Ecology classes online at Southern New Hampshire University, and Ecological Principles and Field Methods at The College of New Jersey. For the past six years, while working at the United States Department of Agriculture, she has organized trainings on invasive plants & insects, risk assessment, and wildflower ID. She also teaches Mushrooms, Molds, and Society class at George Mason University.
