
I am an Assistant Research Professor in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS) at Northern Arizona University, where I am a member of the GEODE lab (PI: Scott Goetz). My research relies on the integration of field and remotely-sensed data to examine global forest community dynamics including drivers of biodiversity and structure, ecoclimatic constraints on biogeographic distributions, and the joint effects of diversity and structure on productivity, habitat, and wildfires. This research program is funded by NASA, CAL FIRE, and other agencies, and is part of international efforts to model multi-scale ecological processes by integrating global-extent, space-borne lidar and hyperspectral remote-sensing (e.g. NASA GEDI and SBG) with airborne data and field data from large ecological observation networks like the NSF’s NEON. Results ultimately seek to inform and support local- to global-scale wildfire and conservation policy, planning, and practice. Here is my curriculum vitae.
Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2017 PhD Ecology
Harvard University
2007 MA Regional Studies East Asia
Reed College
2004 BA Chinese Studies
Appointments
Northern Arizona University
2022– Assistant Research Professor
School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems (SICCS)
2019–22 Postdoctoral Researcher
GEODE lab (PI: Scott Goetz)
Rice University
2017– Kinder Scholar
Kinder Institute for Urban Research
2017–19 Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Rice Academy of Fellows & Department of Statistics
NASA
2014–17 Fellow
Earth and Space Science Program
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
2014 Instructor
Department of Geography
2011–14 Teaching Assistant
Departments of Geography and Ecology
Yale University
2010–11 University Fellow
Forestry and Environmental Science
Solarbuzz LLC
2007–10 Consultant, San Francisco, CA
The Nature Conservancy
2007 Communications Assistant, Kunming, China
Harvard University
2005–07 Research Assistant
Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Cambridge, MA.
2006 Secretary
Harvard Beijing Academy, Cambridge, MA and Beijing, China
World Wildlife Fund
2005 Research Intern, Kunming, China