Mandy is a soil physics PhD student from Wisconsin. When not working in soils, she loves working with her hands learning artisan crafts. She makes her own jewelry, pastel portraits, and has custom made furniture in her apartment. She also loves homesteading. She is a Guinea Pig Ranger, loves making her own cheese, and crafting homemade bread from the spent grains in the beer home-brewing process.

Because of her many years as a camp counselor and nature director for a few different Girl Scout Councils, Mandy is enthusiastic and adaptable, and has worked around many diverse crowds and audiences.

She loves to write about professional development, create new and innovative teaching methods, and is an artist trapped in a science world.

Because of that, her teaching methods and expressions focus on the audiovisual side, using technology like Prezi to make concept maps, and videos to help others learn about soils in a more non traditional manner. When at all possible, she prefers facilitating hands on learning.

Mandy has three dogs.  Clark,  a lab mix that she does competitive dog agility with, and two Australian Cattle Dogs: Herding extraordinaire Banjo, and her service dog Pocosin.  She also loves to hike, bike, and swim with him. She loves to kayak, however, Clark hasn’t quite caught on to how to sit still in the boat.