My work to date has been primarily concerned with the relationship between environmental governance, pastoral livelihoods and land access, and ecological dynamics in semi-arid rangelands. My work with the CONDJUST project focuses on geospatial data analysis practices used for prioritization of wildlife conservation and ecological restoration in areas where extensive pastoralism is a main livelihood.
Before joining the CONDJUST project, I was a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute (IT) in affiliation with the Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Resilience programme at the Institute of Development Studies (UK). I completed postdoctoral positions at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (US), and at the University of Lyon 2 (FR). I grew up in the United States, and did my PhD research in the Integrative Conservation program at the University of Georgia (US). My doctoral research used social science mixed-methods and remote sensing to study changing governance, livelihoods, and vegetation dynamics in collectively titled land in central and southern in Kenya. Prior to this I had completed a Master’s of Natural Resource Management (Ecological Restoration technical option) from North Carolina State University (US), and an undergraduate degree in Ecology and Evolution alongside one in Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh (US).