Lily earned her Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut's Ecology and Evolutionary Biology program, and is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Florida. After working as a field biologist and botanist for three years in Alaska, Lily jointed the Omora Ethnobotanical Park and Biocultural Conservation Program in 2008 to help develop resources for Eco-Tourism with a Hand Lens including two books that describe the Chilean Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve's unique and spectacularly rich bryophyte (Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornworts) and lichen flora. Lily was a postdoctoral researcher during the 2015-2016 austral summer with the Chilean Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, where she investigated processes of bryophyte dispersal on Navarino Island. Her current postdoctoral work is focused on understanding Alaskan moss diversity and how this diversity shapes moss microbiomes, and in turn nitrogen cycling.