After several years as an environmental professional and educator, Samm earned an MA from Oregon State University through the environmental arts and humanities program. As an NSF fellow there, she also minored in risk and uncertainty quantification and communication in marine systems.
She is currently a first-year PhD student in the history of science, medicine, and technology. Her work focuses on coupled marine-human systems, specifically the relationships between science and technology, petrochemical culture, and slow violence in contemporary history.
Samm is an artist in addition to her work at UW-Madison and hopes to blend her scholarly and creative practices.