Emily is an Asheville native who traveled far and wide just to end up back in her beautiful hometown! She has been passionate about exploring the outdoors and observing nature for as long as she can remember. As a child, she would read National Geographic cover to cover and dream of discovering a new species or new natural wonder. She has a degree in Chemistry from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she worked in a marine chemistry laboratory exploring human impacts on marine life and systems. Driven to be immersed in the natural world, she became a certified scuba Divemaster at age 19. Emily became passionate about teaching during the years she worked as an instructor at the Catalina Island Marine Institute in California, and earned her Master of Arts in Teaching from NCSU and became a certified classroom teacher. She formerly taught chemistry, physics, and biology at Erwin High School, and is so excited to be a part of the amazing staff at FSI!
Emily is currently pursuing her NC Environmental Educator certification, and enjoys getting students outside and hands-on with nature as much as possible. She has a ball python and several aquariums of fish as class pets, and too many houseplants. She lives with her husband, Sam, and their senior chihuahua, Fred. When not teaching, Emily loves hiking, dancing, geocaching, and art.
