Larissa Walker is currently director of the Forensic Science program and a faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. Although her Ph.D. is in microbiology, she has published interdisciplinary research in the areas of environmental engineering, metagenomics, and natural product discovery. She is passionate about helping her students make unexpected and productive connections between diverse disciplines so they can become better “outside-the-box” thinkers. Her own non-traditional career path has included positions as a middle school teacher, science writer, and lab manager and is proof that it’s never too late to discover and achieve one’s dream career.