Jose is a first generation college graduate with family ties to southern Mexico in Michoacan. Before going to school he worked full time in various management positions in customer retail. He decided to go back to school and got his Associates degree in Conservation Sciences and continued his education at Iowa State University where he finished a Bachelor's degree in Animal Ecology with a Wildlife emphasis. He is currently working on his thesis to wrap up his Master’s degree in Zoology at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa where he worked on invasive lizards and how foraging behaviors might affect their populations.