I grew up in Dunwoody, Georgia, just outside Atlanta. I completed my undergraduate degree in meteorology at Penn State in 2005 and entered the US Air Force. After serving as a pilot in the Air Force for several years, I went back to school for a master's degree and then taught geography courses at the US Air Force Academy. My master's degree focused on fertility decline in the US during the Great Recession. My interest in fertility rates began around the birth of my first child and on the heels of some struggles with infertility. I also read a key book that got me more interested in this topic, What to Expect When No One's Expecting by Jonathan V. Last. The declining fertility we see in the developed world, and specifically here in the US, really fascinates me.