Research: My recent work has focused on two themes relating to climate change impacts and mitigation. First, using spatial data and modeling (GIS), I have studied how climate change is likely to affect agricultural systems and biodiversity. Second, in order to understand how we can mitigate change, not just worry and watch its impacts, I have increasingly been interested in renewable energy systems and their rapid evolution. This theme responds both to widespread climate anxiety among students and to recent policy incentives that promote renewables. What does a transition to renewables look like at a local and regional scale? How can it be promoted in the face of resistance from business-as-usual interests and practices? 

This work has evolved from my earlier concerns about landscape change and environmental impacts. Landscape change and climate change are both key drivers of change in environmental quality and biodiversity, and as a geographer, I am interested in understanding both the dynamic of changes and the policy contexts that drive those changes. In that context, my earlier work focused on landscape-scale impacts of agricultural policy and agricultural expansion on avian biodiversity (which involved field bird surveys), as well as suburban expansion and its impacts on water quality and biodiversity. Throughout these topics, I am motivated to understand environmental change, to explore new approaches in GIS analysis, and to help students gain useful knowledge and skills for environmental research .

As Director of the Environmental Studies Program, 2020-2023, I worked to support growing attention to sustainability and climate change across the curriculum.  As part of this growing focus on climate responses, I have also worked with colleagues to engage with the fundamental issues of equity and justice in environmental teaching.

Teaching: My recent courses have included seminars on Renewable Energy and Climate Action (GEOG 340), and Renewable Energy in Germany (ENST 260), as well as my staple courses in GIS: GIS and Spatial Analysis (GIS, GEOG 224) and Cartography and Spatial Data Visualization (GEOG 220), I also teach Geographies of Food and Farming (GEOG 256), which integrates geographical and policy issues surrounding food production and its social impacts.  Less frequently, I teach a variety of other courses on conservation and related aspects of environmental and physical geography. Most of my courses involve some components of GIS, environmental inquiry, and field experience (as much as possible). My courses have focused on topics such as historic landscapes and exploration, conservation history in the Adirondack Park, and the intersection of aesthetic landscapes and environmental planning on the Vassar Campus.

Writing: Closely tied to my teaching and research interests are my work as author of two regularly updated textbooks in environmental science: Environmental Science: a Global Concern, and Principles of Environmental Science. Our aim with these books are to give students access to ideas about how science is used to examine and ideally to resolve environmental problems, as well as how human, cultural, and political factors give nuance to environmental issues and solutions. Ideas from these books are informed by, and used in, all of my teaching and research activities. 

When I can, I like to take vacations in interesting landscapes and environments.