I am a wildlife conservation practitioner aspiring to bridge the science-policy-society interface. As a scientist, I am interested in how wild animals adapt to human-modified landscapes. As a practitioner I focus on ways of improving human-wildlife coexistence, informing policy decisions with evidence, and raising inclusivity and diversity in conservation.
My work has spanned field research, advising in situ conservation efforts, mentorship of students undertaking field projects, collaboration with policy makers, land stewards and wildlife managers, and public outreach and conservation advocacy usually in the form of blogs, web and magazine articles. In recent years, I was affiliated with The Safina Center in New York and with the University of Alberta in Canada, where I co-taught a land planning course in the Yukon, co-developed a course curriculum connecting different ways of knowing for land stewardship, and worked with a team to develop a community science and photography project focused on winter coat molt in mountain goats. With the grassroots organization 500 Women Scientists, I cofounded Gage, a global directory of women and gender diverse experts in STEMM fields ready to engage with policy makers, journalists, and members of the public. Previously, I was a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a Research Associate in Zoology and Entomology with the University of the Free State, a Junior Research Fellow in Evolutionary Anthropology at Durham University, a postdoc and lecturer in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, and part of the Southern Tanzania Elephant Program. I have consulted for a variety of NGOs including the Wildlife Conservation Society, WildAid, the Environmental Investigation Agency, and the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group. In 2022, I joined the team at the University of Warsaw's Białowieża Geobotanical Station in Poland, and have been researching the ecological effects of state border militarization. |