Claudia was born and raised in urban Los Angeles, the first and only member of her family to attend college. As a Latina with a dedicated curiosity and penchant for exploration, she took a chance trip to the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains in California as a teen. On this excursion, she learned of the water resource challenges that intertwined LA to these majestic watersheds, and the challenges they both faced. Keeping those challenges in mind, she did a senior thesis looking at the effects of climate change to alpine streams in the Rocky Mountains. During her Master’s at San Francisco State University, she studied the influence of climate variability on groundwater levels, a critical topic in the drought-stricken state of California. After graduating, she taught science over a summer at the Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco, and then spent some time working as a hydrogeologist in the Bay Area with the continued goal of understanding the intersections between hydrogeology, environmental issues, and public understanding. Now she is in Rockies once again! This time as a PhD candidate at CU Boulder.