In his native Costa Rica, Chris studied biology, ecology, and zoology at the Universidad de Costa Rica and the Universidad Estatal a Distancia, then graduating from The Evergreen State College in Washington State in 2007. Chris worked as a naturalist guide for the Organization for Tropical Studies, as a research technician for the Northern spotted owl with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, and as a field instructor for the Sierra Institute in Belize and Guatemala. For four years he worked as the Outreach Coordinator for Wolf Haven International, teaching about wolves and other large carnivores. More recently, he served as an Education Coordinator for Mass Audubon in Massachusetts. In 2022, Chris became a full-time staff naturalist and illustrator for Biomimicry 3.8, an organization where he has worked as a consultant naturalist since 2005. Since 2010, Chris has been leading student programs in Ecuador and the Galápagos, the Pacific Northwest, Australia, Brazil, Belize, the Canadian Arctic, Botswana, Iceland and Namibia. He is fluent in Spanish and proficient in Portuguese.