I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, in a time full of changes, dreams, and nightmares. I did my undergraduate at Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela, a campus within a botanical garden, which lies in the premontane cloud forest of the Caracas suburbs. I went to graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin, where I developed and funded my dream PhD research project in tha Lost World of South America, in my home country. I completed three years as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Colorado State University, while also teaching and coordinating graduate courses for the Organization for Tropical Studies, both of which were spectacular opportunities for both personal and professional growth. I later took a visiting professor  position at IKIAM University in the small town of Tena, in the Amazonian Napo province of Ecuador, and later was I am a Full Professor at Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica in Ambato, Ecuador, a place surrounded by active volcanoes and faults in a stunning Andean landscape. Most recently, I finished a two-year visiting professor position at St. Mary's College of Maryland, and am now looking to expand my horizons into other forms of academic involvement, outreach, and jobs.