I have a joint appointment with the Department of Social Sciences and the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science. My research fits generally within the framework of multidisciplinary sustainability science. I develop and test sustainability indices for their utility to manage dynamic human-environmental systems from local to global scales. I also look at the impact of economic trade on the sustainability of these systems, the so-called "leakage" effect, and its impact on local biodiversity and ecosystems, the "boomerang" effect. Finally, I have been working on biodiversity conservation and conservation policy since working on the federally threatened California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica) while at Pomona College, and the federally endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus mirabilis) in graduate school.

My training and experience is multidisciplinary, split between ecology and policy, as well as some natural resource economics. I use computer simulations and GIS, to data collection in a variety of habitats. I have conducted field work in the coastal sage scrub in southern California, the Florida Everglades, urbanized watersheds in Cincinnati, protected natural areas throughout the Midwest, and the boreal forest in Finland and Russia.