Projects

My work spans the intersection of biodiversity science, spatial planning, and community-based conservation. Across research and applied roles, I have worked on projects spanning South and Southeast Asia, the Pacific, Europe, and North America - engaging with NGOs, government agencies, intergovernmental organizations, and local communities across diverse ecological and cultural contexts. Below are some of the thematic areas that define my work.

Landscape-scale biodiversity and ecosystem function

My doctoral research examined vertebrate scavenger diversity, community structure, and ecosystem services across a full biome and elevation gradient in the Chitwan-Annapurna Landscape of Central Nepal, spanning tropical Sal forests of the Terai to subalpine zones at 4,200m. Working across trophic levels and multiple taxa, I analyzed how land use, human footprint, and climate shape biodiversity and ecosystem function at landscape scale, deploying remote camera networks, conducting avian point counts, and leading an international, multidisciplinary field team. This work was funded in part by a 2019 National Geographic Explorer Grant.

Community-based conservation and participatory approaches

Across my research and applied work, I have consistently integrated community voices and local ecological knowledge into conservation science and planning. This includes in-person surveys with livestock farmers in Nepal examining human-wildlife interactions; community discussions on deforestation and livelihoods in Borneo; social values indicator development and field-based validation with local communities in India; and the development of a Participatory Public GIS (PPGIS) tool and community mapping workshops in Europe to center local priorities in landscape-scale planning. I believe that responsible, lasting conservation at the nexus of people and nature is best achieved when co-designed with the communities who steward natural landscapes.

Land use planning and conservation decision-making

In my current role as Social-Ecological Scientist at The Nature Conservancy, I develop and apply social-ecological analyses to support land use and conservation planning - including in the context of renewable energy transitions - that balances anthropogenic pressures, biodiversity priorities, and human well-being. Previously, as a consultant with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), I led a stocktake of peatland conservation initiatives across Southeast Asia and developed a multi-country Concept Note for the Green Climate Fund. Across past roles, I have contributed to technical reports, white papers, peer-reviewed publications, and capacity-strengthening workshops for practitioners and researchers.

Field methods and biodiversity monitoring

My fieldwork has spanned multiple ecosystems, taxa, and methodologies across three continents. Highlights include vegetation surveys and avifauna assessments in the cloud and upland forests of Savai'i, Samoa with Conservation International; raptor surveys in the Annapurna Conservation Area with the Peregrine Fund; habitat and primate population surveys in a peat-swamp forest in Borneo; and passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) training at the TEMABio workshop in the Brazilian Pantanal, organized by Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology. I am experienced in camera trapping, point counts, vegetation surveys, species distribution modeling, and acoustic monitoring across birds, mammals, and bats. My fieldwork has also incorporated social survey methods, including in-person interviews and structured questionnaires with local communities, to capture the human dimensions of wildlife and ecosystem research.