I’m an urban kid from Chicago, a professional photographer who one day found myself in rural Texas with a knife in my hand. When I answered a Craigslist Ad for “game processing”, I had no idea what this next chapter of my life would hold. Hunting and consuming wild game meat were far outside of my lived experience at the time. During that first season at a custom processor, I was acutely aware of how disconnected I had been from my food sources. Now, I could never escape the fact that I was cutting up an animal to turn into food. I was confronted with my own cultural biases about what hunting represented and what stewardship could also be. 

Curious by nature with a love of stories, I appreciate the tales of these wild animals and a human purpose. It gives me a sense of responsibility to honor the hunted and the hunter. The more I learned about our food sources, the more I turned death into sustenance, and the more passionate I became about sharing my knowledge. Hunting is conservation, a phrase often said by outdoors folk, became my soap box. I started posting images of my work on my social media under the hashtag Meet Your Meat to share the journey with my friends. When the pandemic hit and our food sources were hit, hunting licenses were issued more than ever and people turned to home gardens to nourish their families. That’s when my purpose in butchery education met my passion for food sovereignty. Over the last two years, I have produced pop-up dinners, given educational butchery demonstrations, done public speaking on the subject, and had my first hunt. 

As of 2023, I’m about to enter my 8th hunting season at a custom processor. I also have some personal hunts lined up in addition to more opportunities to educate others. I’m looking forward to learning more about it all, filling my life with wild experiences and sharing them with y’all.