Gabrielle Lyon was born on July 12, 1972 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is the oldest (and shortest) of five kids - Raphael, Noah, Rebecca and Lucas. As a kid Gabe liked to draw, read, collect butterflies and plaster her locker with the wrappers of tootsie roll lollipops.

At Pascack Valley High School, in Hillsdale, New Jersey, she played flute in the band and became an environmental and social activist. She co-founded the school's first environmental club, Students for Environmental Action and Awareness- SEAA. Since then she has worked with Teaching Tolerance Magazine, the Small Schools Workshop in Chicago.

She is now the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Project Exploration, a non-profit science education organization, dedicated to making dinosaur discoveries accessible to the public and using the wonder of natural science to empower city kids.

Gabe studied Medieval History and the History of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. She completed her BA and MAS in 1994, and is currently working on a Doctorate in Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Gabe has been a team member expeditions to Niger ('93, '97, '00), Morocco ('95), and Argentina ('96). Her newest activity is learning how to train Dino, the camp dog the team brought back from Africa. Gabe is not planning to bring a dog back from China.

(*NOTE: Gabe is modest so she hasn't told you she is discovered Deltadromeus, the delta runner)