I chose to return to graduate school to pursue a Ph.D. in 2005 after working for an educational non-profit and as a freelance software application developer. Though my undergraduate education and research interests were steeped in ecological methodology, theory and application at a variety of scales and environments, my interests shifted to broader, more far-reaching issues. I knew that only a geography department like UF's could provide all of the opportunities I needed. After returning to school, funded by a UF Presidential Fellowship, I have studied geographic theories, new analytical methods and developed the avenues for my research. Though my Masters research addressed the highly technical challenges related to integrating multiple satellite platforms into longitudinal studies of land cover change, my Ph.D. research will be more broadly based. My general interests relate to how economic and ecological drivers impact natural resource management and land use, and how those play out at the landscape scale.
To address these research interests I am transitioning back to work with ecological temperate forest dynamics and how forest health and management practices interact with the larger socioecological conditions in Wallowa County, Oregon.
Stay tuned for more information.