Where were you before you arrived at AU? 

Immediately before arriving at AU, I was employed in the USDA Northern Research Station, part of the research arm of the U.S. Forest Service. My team focused on environmental stewardship, thinking broadly about how people across sectors care for their surroundings using methods that span from qualitative storytelling methods to quantitative surveys to ecological geospatial analyses. I also have over ten years of experience with nature conservation non-profits, including with The Nature Conservancy, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and Conservation International, and academic training at the Tropical Rivers Lab at Florida International University, University of Chicago and Field Museum, and Cornell University.

Tell us about your main research focus? 

Overall, I’m interested in how people work together to make the world a better place. I tend to separate this interest into three parts: descriptions of the world today, who is the “we” and what is the “better”, and the actions taken to get the world from where it is today to whatever that “better” is. This focus allows me to integrate the disciplines I draw from: ecology, evolutionary biology, geography, anthropology, sociology, and philosophy. 

Please summarize your dissertation. 

My dissertation, advised by Dr. John Bates at the Field Museum, was an interdisciplinary approach to investigating urban bird diversity in Latin American cities. One chapter focused on the tradeoffs of using remote sensing versus local knowledge for visually classifying high-resolution satellite images in Nauta (a small Peruvian city in the Amazon), another on the relationship between urban residents’ knowledge, attitudes, and curiosity about birds and their local bird diversity in four Peruvian cities, and, the last chapter on the use of a citizen science dataset (eBird) to assess species diversity thresholds across 37 Latin American cities. The overall takeaway of the dissertation is that public participation in research and science is not only a nice-to-have, but a must-have for applied science.

What are you working on at CECE? 

While at CECE, my main focus is the Workforce Development and the 4 Rs project. I started collaborating with this project while in the Forest Service, and I’m excited for the opportunity to delve deeper into the dynamics of workforce development and volunteering programs in the government, how they’re changing and exchanging knowledge and strategies, and how they’re responding to natural disasters. We’re also focusing on the participants themselves: understanding how and why they choose to be part of these programs and the differences across generations and geographies. I will also continue to work on my other projects on environmental stewardship and participatory methodologies.  

How did you get involved in this work/ where did you get your start?  

I have my parents to thank for driving my interest in this work. Both of them worked in nature conservation when I was little, and when we immigrated to the U.S., one became a teacher and the other stayed in conservation— but both continued to be committed to a better world. Seeing them continue to integrate that purpose into their lives despite changing organizations and roles has been a huge inspiration.

What is one thing in the environmental sector that makes you feel optimistic? 

The people. This is hard work, but people are committed to making their relationship with their surroundings, environment and otherwise, better, and that gives me hope.