Christine was born and raised in San Jose, CA. She grew up hiking, backpacking, and frolicking in natural spaces with family, which instilled a connection to and desire to protect and conserve natural resources. She served two terms with the Watershed Stewards Program (WSP), where she built extensive field experience across Trinity, Humboldt, and Mendocino Counties, including streamflow and water quality monitoring, stream habitat surveys, meadows delineations, spawner and snorkel surveys, and the design, development, and implementation of instream habitat restoration projects.