I am a professor of Microbiology and the Director of the Microbiology Master's Programs at UW-LaCrosse with a focus on applied/industrial microbiology. My main focus is on using acetic acid bacteria as biofactories for the production of industrially important value-added products. I also have recently started projects concerning pathogen detection, microbial source tracking of aquatic fecal loading, and the influence of gut microbiomes alligator snapping turtles and fruit flies. These data can be directly applied to the maintenance and conservation of water systems (i.e. recreational and wastewaters) and can be used in water treatment and management plans. Our microbiome projects find a number of applications ranging from species conservation to improved models of human health and disease. 

​

I earned a B.S. in Biotechnology from St. Cloud State University and a Ph.D. in Biology (applied microbiology and biochemistry focus) at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. I joined the faculty at Missouri State University after spending 4 years as a Postdoctoral Researcher/Instructor at the Institut für Mikrobiologie und Biotechnologie at the Universität Bonn in Germany before joining the Microbiology Department at UW-LaCrosse.