About
Hello!
I'm a research social scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center. This is a personal website (used to store free copies of all my work) - for my USGS staff profile, see here.
Broadly, I'm interested in conducting research that helps inform public lands and outdoor recreation management. Most of my previous work focused on: (1) how visitor behavior on public lands may shift under changing weather and climate conditions; and (2) how to use freely available online data (e.g., social media, Google Trends) to inform park and protected area management.
I earned my B.S. from Drake University in Des Moines, IA, in environmental science and policy. Then I went on to study at the University of Maine, where I recieved an M.S. in forest resources, specifically focusing on outdoor recreation and tourism. At UMaine, I worked with Dr. Sandra de Urioste-Stone.
I then worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Mississippi as a fellow evaluating the recreational entrace fee program at Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge. After this, I headed west to work as a (contractor) social scientist for the USGS Fort Collins Science Center, where my research focused on informing the 2018 adaptation of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.
I then headed farther west, to Utah State University, where I earned my Ph.D. in Environment and Society with a concentration in Climate Adaptation Science. At USU, I worked with Dr. Jordan W. Smith in the Institute of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism. During my Ph.D., I used social media to investigate the impact of weather and climate on visitation to public lands.
Summitting my eleventh Colorado 14er
Setting up trail counters in North Cascades National Park
Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge, where I worked for USFWS
Conducting visitor surveys across Maine
Rocky Mountain National Park, where I led a trail crew