I am an interdisciplinary social-environmental scientist studying the cultural dimensions of climate and land use change in North America. My research examines how Indigenous nations and rural communities experience, adapt to, and shape environmental change on the landscapes they call home. I work at the intersection of environmental anthropology, Indigenous environmental sciences, cultural ecology, and human-environment geography to understand the intertwined social and ecological consequences of a rapidly changing climate.

My work reveals how cultural values, ecological knowledge, and institutional arrangements shape land stewardship—and how those relationships are being transformed by climate change. Most importantly, I study how communities are mobilizing collaborative approaches to land stewardship that integrate Indigenous and local knowledge with scientific research to develop innovative, place-based strategies for climate adaptation and mitigation.

Through long-term, community-engaged research partnerships with Tribal nations, federal land management agencies, and rural communities across California and Nevada, my research informs more equitable climate adaptation strategies and public lands policy. I use mixed methods that span ethnography, interviews, focus group discussions, household surveys, community science, archival research, and spatial analysis.

My research is published in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Annual Review of Environment & Resources, Environmental Research Letters, and other leading journals and edited volumes, and has been featured in dozens of media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and National Public Radio. My work is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, University of California, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Yale University, and Stanford University.

To learn more about my current work on collaborative stewardship and climate resilience in forest ecosystems, please see this news story and the project website.