He has a BA in English from Macalester and a Masters in Liberal Arts from St. John's College in Santa Fe. He has been writing about Southeast Asia biodiversity since 2007, and in 2009, he first was introduced to the plight of the Sumatran rhino. Since then, he has written several articles about the Sumatran rhino, including the Mongabay series "Is Anyone Going to Save the Sumatran Rhino?"