Olivia was born and raised in a small town in Upstate New York, where she grew fond of lush forests and rounded mountaintops. Her research adventures at Hamilton College took her to an intentional community in Missouri, a place-based alternative education nonprofit in Alaska, and eventually a social ecology conference in Greece. After completing her undergraduate education, she traded the Adirondack Mountains for the Wasatch Front to complete an M.S. in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah, focused on climate justice, critical geography, environmental political theory, and social movement-building. While at the U, Olivia taught Intro to Writing and designed and led community classes at a local nature center, focusing on co-creating knowledge and connecting theory to practice. This commitment to practice is threaded throughout her work.

Outside of academics, Olivia has led various outdoor education trips for students of all ages across the Adirondacks, the Rocky Mountains, and the Wasatch Front. She loves camping, roadtripping, skiing, exploring coffee shops, reading, cooking, and cold plunging in alpine lakes. Olivia is invested in organizing for a more just and liberated future, and has worked in solidarity
with movements creating deeper relationships of care across environmental and social realms. She sees education as a key part of building community resilience, and is so excited to be working with WRFI!