Beth grew up on Lake Michigan, clambering around the woods and bluffs with her friends and father. Her drive to engage more professionally in the natural world came from a sudden and intense fascination with insects, specifically ants, around 2018. 

In the years of aspiring to become an up-and-coming amateur Myrmecologist (Scientist of ants), she stumbled onto her niche, fungus growing ants. This newfound passion, in addition to her in-laws introducing her to foraging for morels in 2020, opened a new appeal for fungi as a whole.

Her last three years have been spent dedicating free time to education and taking up opportunities to share the knowledge she has collected. She runs her social media accounts under “Bugs with Beth”, where she shares facts on the insects of Wisconsin and is currently an active member of the WMS Science Committee.
Beth received her Wisconsin Master Naturalist Certification in the Spring of 2025. She spends time, weekly, volunteering with the Wehr Nature Center in Franklin, Wisconsin. She offers her time in different ways, from assisting in animal care to being a volunteer educator for classes on the natural world in various school and event spaces.

She helped maintain the Bug Zoo table for Bug Day at Wehr this year and shared her insect knowledge with any of the 800 attendees that visited the table.

She had a table at Fungi Fair this year as “Bugs with Beth”, where she had a family-friendly educational activity set up discussing examples of relationships between insects and fungi.

Beth also has other certifications such as Wisconsin Certified Wild Mushroom Identifier through the WMS (Feb. 2024), Bugs 101 through the University of Alberta online (Feb 2024), and two separate pest control certifications through the WI Dept. of Agriculture with the topic of focus being biological control agents (April 2023).

Outside of being a salon manager and Cosmetologist of 11 years, she also has an 8-year-old son who shares her love for the great outdoors