Research 

In 2021, a lawsuit brought to the Ecuadorian courts by 9 young girls from the Ecuadorian Amazon called for a total moratorium on gas flaring near populated areas. Although the court sided with the young girls, the lack of region-specific research on the environmental impact stalled any future action. Recognizing this research gap, I developed a participatory action research project in the spring of 2024 with the Loma del Tigre community. We evaluated soil quality at comparative distances from gas flares, using plant and soil macroinvertebrate abundance and biodiversity as bioindicators of possible contamination. It is my hope that the published research can be used as a tool that impacted communities can use to advocate against or negotiate with petroleum companies that are active in or near their territories. 

The research paper can be found here. 

In the summer of 2024, I worked with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in Northern Minnesota on a project evaluating the impact of sulfate contamination on wild rice lakes. This research project supported the tribe’s environmental standards advocacy by building a deeper understanding of sulfate toxicity on a cultural cornerstone of Ojibwe (Chippewa) culture–manoomin (wild rice), which the tribe has harvested from lakes in their ancestral homelands for generations. Fond du Lac has become a powerhouse in tribal and environmental rights advocacy, shaping state and federal legislation on treaty rights, in part because of their effective partnerships with university researchers. 

The research StoryMap can be found here.