I’m an ecosystem ecologist and currently a NSF Postdoctoral Fellow in the Forest Futures Lab at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. I work in the intersection of paleoecology, landscape ecology and disturbance ecology, using field, lab, and modeling tools to study how ecosystems change over space and time.
My interest in fire sparked from working on charcoal records in a paleoecology lab as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Prior to my Ph.D., I reconstructed long-term patterns of fire in coast redwood forests as part of my master’s research at the University of Oregon. My doctoral research at the University of Colorado Denver explored how increasing fires in Alaska changes forest communities, forest carbon storage and future patterns of fire. As a postdoctoral fellow, I’m trying to understand how fire might interact with moose, snowshoe hare, and other agents of change.
Outside of research, I collect records and houseplants and I grew up in the Midwest so I have strong opinions about cheese and the packers.