I am very privileged to be a paleontologist and just so lucky to do this for a living! And like everyone else, it’s because of the people in my life.

I am grateful to my Ph.D. advisor, Dave Bottjer. My own success as an advisor is due to him. He set me on the trajectory of field-based work, introduced me to X, and taught me how write the first drafts of papers while in line for Splash Mountain at Disneyland.

I have had many other helpful hands—in particular, my academic aunt and uncle, Sue Kidwell and Dave Jablonski, and Carl Brett from whom I took my first undergraduate paleontology class. I have had great friends in paleontology, many of whom I met as a grad student or as an early career faculty member—often at the Paleontological Society dinner! I have had so many shared scientific—and sometimes not so scientific—adventures with Arnie Miller, Charles Marshall, Rachel Wood, Isabel Montanez, and Doug Erwin.

I have been privileged to be faculty member at UC Riverside. I am proud of my university and department and have benefitted greatly from their support. Peter Sheehan and Richard Fortey taught me to appreciate the Ordovician even though I only listened to them for a while before moving down in section—I still do love the Ordovician!

I have spent a great deal of time in South Australia working on the Ediacaran at what is now Nilpena Ediacara National Park. Imagine how extraordinary it was to be part of setting up a new national park, in another country! There were so many people who were involved in facilitating the research and the development of the park. The park is on the traditional lands of the Adnyamathanha People and I appreciate the Adnyamathanha elders with whom I have worked, especially Bev Paterson and Arthur Coultard. Jason Irving and the National Parks team have been such a pleasure to work with, and their vision and tenacity made the park happen.

I am deeply indebted to Jane and Ross Fargher—the owners of Nilpena Station. Their dedication to the fossils—when it was not necessarily in their own best interest—has been extraordinary. The fossils are conserved because of them. They bailed me out of trouble more times than I would like to admit, always with humor and grace. And of course, Jim Gehling, my long-time collaborator and friend, taught me so much about South Australian geology and paleontology.

I am here because of my graduate students. I have been so lucky with grad students. It is not always easy being part of the Droser-verse. From the ‘Droser originals’ to my current group, my students have always been so bright and creative and fun and they keep me on my toes. My grad students have been and are flexible and adjustable and they have leaned into all of the crazy roads—sometimes literally—that we have gone on. They have been and always will be ‘my people.’ So thank you to each and every one of you.

And finally, I thank my family who have played an extremely significant role in my career. My siblings and in-laws and most of my many nieces and nephews have spent time in the field with me—some for years and years—still going to Australia on weeks off from work! For me, it has always taken a village. My mom spent so much time in the field with me—for months, year after year both in the Great Basin and Nilpena, taking care of our kids and managing Nilpena. I could not have done any of it without her.

Nigel has been steadfast. He is still the one that gets me laughing and makes me smile the most. I am so lucky to have met and married him. I am so very grateful to our kids, Emmy and Ian. They have spent so much time in the field with me while Nigel was working in Southeast Asia—from the days in diapers onward—they were in the back of a Toyota 4Runner in the Great Basin or in the outback with me. Their summer home was a cattle station in the outback and each ultimately became involved with the research there and are now becoming scientists on their own. I am sure that there were times when it was hard for Emmy and Ian to explain their parents to kids with more ‘normal’ parents. I could not be more appreciative or proud of them.

Thanks again to the Paleontological Society. I am grateful to all of those who make the society work—working hard to make it a scientifically rigorous but also an inclusive and welcoming society.