I have been a faculty member at the University of Arizona since 2020. I came to academia after a career in environmental policy in Washington, DC and Arizona. I worked in Washington, DC for several organizations, focusing on forest, water, and conservation policy. My work focused on collaborative conservation and development of economic incentives for conservation. Over the course of approximately 7 years in DC, I worked for the Pinchot Institute for Conservation as a Project Manager and the National Council for Science and the Environment as Forest Policy Program Coordinator. I also worked at the Arizona Water Resources Research center on collaborative watershed management and municipal water conservation policy. Some examples of my work include:
- Conceptualized and directed the Common Waters Fund, a $1.9 million program to conserve water quality and private forest lands in the Delaware River Basin using ecosystem markets and traditional conservation approaches. Managed the Common Waters Partnership as a whole, including fundraising for initiatives of the partnership, management of grants and projects, supervision of staff and contractors, landowner relations and facilitation of meetings of the Partnership and other stakeholders on contentious issues such as natural gas drilling in the Delaware Basin.
- Secured $2.5 million in funding from 2008 to 2011 from federal, foundation, and corporate sources, including $1 million specifically earmarked to increase private forest conservation and management in the Upper Delaware River Watershed.
- Lead facilitator and director of the Common Waters Marcellus Shale Community Dialogue project, an effort to improve communication between all stakeholders both for and against natural gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin, identify common interests and concerns, and provide information responsive to stakeholders’ concerns. Facilitator for several other projects, including workgroups on habitat and forest conservation markets for private landowners.
- Managed all aspects of the development of market rules for the Bay Bank, a regional, multi-credit ecosystem services marketplace for the six state Chesapeake Bay region, in five market areas: carbon sequestration, habitat conservation, water quality protection, forest conservation, and conservation programs.
- Co-developed and co-facilitated a strategic planning process for the US Forest Service’s Research branch.
- Coordinated the National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry, including administering grants to universities and non-governmental organizations and managing the grant peer review process.