My work examines the cultural dynamics of environmental change in North America. I study how Indigenous nations and rural communities are impacted by changing ecosystems tied to land-use practices and climate change. My academic background is situated in environmental anthropology, Indigenous environmental studies/sciences, human-environment geography, and ethnoecology. My methods draw from the social and environmental sciences and include: participant observation, semi-structured interviews, oral history interviews, household surveys, field ecology, archival research, and spatial analysis. The foundation of my research practice is long-term ethnographic fieldwork conducted in collaboration with local communities.

Landscapes are being reshaped by land use practices and climate change. These changes have profound impacts on the well-being and livelihoods of Indigenous and rural communities. I am interested in how people experience social belonging and navigate place-making under conditions of social and ecological change. In my collaborations with Indigenous communities, I examine how climate and land use change are affecting traditional foods and important cultural practices on ancestral homelands. I also study environmental governance and how rural communities, Indigenous nations, and federal government agencies interact over land management issues. My work informs cutting-edge public lands policy and practice for diverse rural communities with strong cultural ties to landscapes across North America.

My research is funded through external grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Wenner-Gren Foundation, National Science Foundation, Yale University, and University of California.

To learn more about my current work on collaborative forest stewardship and climate resilience in pinyon-juniper ecosystems, please see: http://pinyonjuniper.org/.