About Me

I am currently an Associate at the Conservation Biology Institute where I conduct applied research integrating spatial analyses, field experiments, and quantitative techniques to understand plant and wildlife responses to climate change, land-use change, and their interactions with changing wildfire regimes. 

Previously, I was a quantitative ecologist at Point Blue Conservation Science , a researcher at SDSU and UC Berkeley, and a postdoc at UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, the San Diego Zoo's Institute for Conservation Biology, and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science.  In these positions I have used vegetation simulation models to understand the impacts of wildfire, satellite data to support waterbird management in the Central Valley of California, modelled landscape connectivity for iconic wildlife in Southern California,  created mechanistic models of species' distributions and abundances, and analyzed data from a treeline warming experiment.  I feel lucky to have learned many valuable technical skills working with great collaborators on projects of my own design.  Work doesn't get better than that.

As an applied scientist, I regularly engage in education and outreach. An article I adapted (Vijay et al. 2016) for the Earth Science Journal for Kids received praise in Nature to celebrate Earth Day 2017!  As a lover of learning, I try to promote access to higher education and created a mentoring program for first generation college students.

In addition to my work in science, I have experience in social science and policy, gathered as a researcher at the University of California, Riverside's Center for Social Innovation.  In this position I worked on managing, analyzing, and visualizing data on a variety of equity indicators in the Inland Empire, with a special passion for educational equity.