I was born in Holyoke, MA but grew up in Central New York mainly around Syracuse. I received by B.A. in Geology from SUNY Potsdam in 2000. I attended graduate school at Texas A&M University and received my M.S. in Geophysics in 2002. While finishing my Masters Degree I was offered to continue on for a Ph.D doing research into the area of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) detection and improved target definition on a grant administered by the U.S. Department of Defense.