Article Index
My Background
Undergraduate
Postgraduate
PhD program
Postdoctoral career
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I grew up in Cincinnati Ohio, the youngest of nine children in a family that was steeped more in literature and the arts than science. My interest in ecology probably grew out of the many days I spent trekking through the woods with my friends and my life-long love of animals. When I graduated from high school, my stated goal was to pursue a degree in biology with the intent of going to medical school. However, deep down I knew that I wanted to become a biologist.
I went to the University of Michigan, where I received a degree in Biology in 1983. I spent two summers working with John Vandermeer's agroecology group doing research on intecropping at the Matthaei Botanical Gardens. That experience stimulated my interest in agriculture and opened up my eyes to the complicated relationship between agriculture and the environment. I took a class in forest entomology taught by John Vitter in the School of Natural Resources, which piqued my interest in the study of insects. At that time, society was emerging from the Rachel Carson era, which had raised serious concerns about the effects of pesticides on human health and the environment. There was a great deal of enthusiasm for seeking alternatives to control of insect pests in agriculture and I was swept up by this enthusiasm.
After graduating in 1983, I went to the UM Biological Station in Pellston, Michigan, to take a course in insect ecology. In 1983, I did a year of graduate school the Department of Entomology at the University of California, Berkeley, after which I took a couple of years off school to work and travel. In 1986, I did an internship at the Land Institute in Salina Kansas which further expanded my interest in agroecology. I went to back to graduate school in 1987 at Miami University to get a Master's degree in Zoology with Dr. Gary Barrett. My thesis examined the influence of intecropping on insect movement in crop fields. During my studies I started to realize that I could not fully understand agriculture systems without a better understanding of soils and soils fertility. I became drawn to ecosystem ecology, which focuses on the flux of materials, nutrients and energy through ecosystems.  In researching graduate programs for my PhD I discovered programs in soil ecology that blended by interests in entomology, soils and agriculture. 
I started a PhD program at Ohio State University in 1989, where I worked under Clive Edwards in the Department of Entomology. Ben Stinner, any early pioneer in agroecosystem ecology was on my committee, and John Blair, currently professor at Kansas State University, was the postdoc working in our lab. Under John's leadership, the lab received a major NSF grant to examine the influence of earthworms and different fertilizer inputs on nutrient cycling in agro-ecosystems.  My doctoral research focused on the influence of earthworms on carbon and nitrogen cycling, including their influence on available nutrients in system fertilized with inorganic and organic fertilizers, and their role in decomposition of crop residues. That project started my long and illustrious career working with earthworms. I received my PhD in 1994.
After finishing my doctorate, I went to the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook NY, to work as a postdoctoral research associate with Peter Groffman. I did a project at the long-term ecological research site at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire where I examined the influence of vegetation and elevation on soil microbial activity and microbially-mediated nitrogen cycling processes.  I also continued my research in Ohio on the influence of earthworms on nutrient cycling in arable fields.  After working four years as postdoc, I had the great fortune to get a research job with Archbold Biological Station, as Director of Research at the MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center.  My ecological research program has continued to grow in new directions, including an emphasis on wetland ecosystems and the relationship between ecology and hydrology.  Many of the challenges in agroecology transcend disciplinary boundaries and consequently I have begun to work at the interface between ecology, economics and the social and policy changes needed to develop a more sustainable agriculture.