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I study resilience and equity under climate change, applying a quantitative toolkit and anti-colonialist questioning to the uncertainty faced by communities experiencing climate change.
I work to understand what it means for a joint human and natural system to be resilient, questioning not only the system dynamics required for the human and natural elements to adapt, but also the impact of the nested connectivity between the community, historically assumed access to Indigenous Land, and continued violence of climate change.
About My Current Work
About My Current Work
In my PhD dissertation work as a NOAA NMFS Sea Grant Fellow and a participant in the UC Davis Sustainable Oceans NSF Traineeship, I apply network theory, discrete choice models, and machine learning procedures to the resilience of US West Coast commercial fishing. My research is advised by Jim Sanchirico and Matt Reimer.
I map the complex system of regional commercial fishing, in which human behavior forms connections between fish populations that defy trophic and abiotic conditions. I project the relationships between humans and the environment into dimensional space, producing a unique shape that reveals patterns of mutualism in port communities and their possible responses to an uncertain future.
Andromeda by Odilon Redon (1905)
My Previous Work
My Previous Work
From 2019-2021, I developed explicit spatial modeling techniques with Jude Bayham that I used to describe the impacts of natural resource extraction and colonialist exploitation. I documented the differences between historical and present Indigenous Land as a result of land dispossession and forced migration in my contribution to Farrell et al. (2021). My MS thesis estimated the impact of oil and gas fracking on nearby students: how the pollution, noise, light, and traffic from fracking impedes student learning and testing. During COVID, I generated timely data insights for state policy makers and built live websites for the Colorado SPH COVID-19 Modeling Group.
I present these methods in chapters of an online textbook.
More About Gal
More About Gal
Before academia, I worked on traditionally rigged tall ships in Michigan, Tasmania, and Spain. The wooden and steel boats—and the seas they brought me to—formed my current curiosity. I believe in cultivating our relationships to the oceans, forests, and mountains, and all the megafauna and little critters.
My broad goal is to find balance between my personal relationship to the world, my quantitative and creative drives, and my values of climate justice and tikkun olam. I like collaboration, so please feel free to reach out.
I can be found on adventures with my dog, swimming in a creek, playing piano, surfing, drawing, or tending to my houseplants. The images on this website include pictures from my collection along with artworks and museum archives.
Ambrose Lightship LV-87, South Street Seaport Museum Archives (ca. 1929)
Header image is of Western Mongolia, photographed by Gal (2015)
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