I am a research geographer for the Western Geographic Science Center (WGSC).
I work on the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and the enhancement of natural resource and wildland fire management activities within socio-ecological or human-environment systems. I conduct interdisciplinary studies to understand the consequences of climate and land use change to determine priorities for conservation action or to inform natural resource management. I employ geographic information systems, passive and active remote sensing, environmental modeling, and high performance computing in my quantitative analyses. My area of interest and expertise is the western USA.
Professional Experience
Research geographer, (10/2011 - present), Western Geographic Science Center, USGS
Student Career Experience Program (SCEP), (3/2009 - 10/2011), Western Geographic Science Center, USGS
Graduate student researcher, (8/2005 - 8/2011), Biogeography Lab, UC Santa Barbara
Research assistant (7/2008 - 9/2009), Conservation International
Research assistant (7/2008 - 9/2009), Allen-Diaz Lab, UC Berkeley
Graduate student researcher, (1/2008 - 6/2008), National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UC Santa Barbara
Education and Certifications
2011, PhD in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California Santa Barbara. "Ecosystem services and cost-effective conservation planning".
2005, MS in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California Santa Barbara.
2001, BA in Biology from Colorado College
Science and Products
Integrated Wildland Fire Science
Land Use and Climate Change Team
Changes to Watershed Vulnerability under Future Climates, Fire Regimes, and Population Pressures
Science and Products
- Science
Integrated Wildland Fire Science
The size and number of large wildland fires in the western United States have grown dramatically over the past decade, with a contingent rise in damages and suppression costs. This trend will likely continue with further growth of the wildland urban interface (WUI) into fire prone ecosystems, hazardous fuel conditions from decades of fire suppression, and a potentially increasing effect from...Land Use and Climate Change Team
We are a research team focusing on understanding the rates, causes, and consequences of land change across a range of geographic and temporal scales. Our emphasis is on developing alternative future projections and quantifying the impact on environmental systems, in particular, the role of land-use change on ecosystem carbon dynamics. We are interested in how land-use and climate systems will...Changes to Watershed Vulnerability under Future Climates, Fire Regimes, and Population Pressures
The project aimed to use existing models and data to understand how wildfires (number, size, and location) and land-use change will affect watersheds, and therefore water supply, under current conditions and future climates (through 2050) in the western U.S. The projected changes in temperature and precipitation are expected to affect water supply in two major ways: 1) decreased water availability - Data
- Multimedia
- Publications