Research

In college, in Aaron Ellison's lab, I inadvertently became a spider taxonomy expert. In the decade that followed, I conducted several studies and advised many students in their own studies of arthropod food-web dynamics and biodiversity. Today I still advise students in spider research, and I ogle spiders wherever I go, but my primary scholarly interests are in science communication, equity and justice in natural resources, and STEM learning.

In 2024, I joined with Katharine Hinkle, Tara Goodhue, and Cynthia Liu to PI a study on the ways in which an inclusive, hands-on STEM learning environment impacts middle school students' sense of STEM identity - the extent to which they identify as a "science person." We annually collect pre- and post-program surveys from middle school students participating in year-round data collection as part of the Harvard Schoolyard Ecology Program in both formal and informal learning contexts.

I launched a social science research project in 2016 to analyze the role of firewood banks in supporting fuel-poor households around the US, with a growing research group that has now taken on a great deal of the work (thanks, Rick Harper, Eric Griffith, Sarah Butler, Jay Dampier, Jessica Leahy, and Darian Dyer - you are incredible!).  Explore our 2022 research paper on lessons from 21 interviews of U.S. wood bank leaders, and our 2025 paper analyzing survey results from wood bank leaders around the country. We also now advise a larger, policy-focused initiative with leaders from the Alliance for Green Heat, EPA, and US Forest Service, to expand our research on successful praxis, and to build a community of practice of wood bank leaders across the private and public sector. Together, we aim to ensure equitable and effective wood bank support to tribes, municipalities, and community groups. We also continuously update my map of US wood banks and welcome your suggestions for additions.

With colleagues Danielle Ignace, Nia Holley, Tyler White, Meghan Graham MacLean, Rafael Viana Furer, Lehua Blalock, Emily Johnson, and Jennifer Albertine; and students Langa Siziba (Harvard '25), Jaidyn Probst (Harvard '23), Santiago Alvarado (RISD '24), Rachel Carrethers (Wellesley '24), Charitie Ropati (Columbia '24), and Anagali Duncan (Stanford '26), I have been working to amplify Indigenous voices in STEM and specifically to create new mechanisms for land sovereignty and rematriation, co-development of ecological research questions, restoration of cultural lifeways, and legal self-determination for the Nipmuc here in their ancestral territory. This includes using my education and outreach platform to 1) interrupt the pervasive "extinction" narrative of Native peoples in the region; 2) re-interpret land-based research and conservation narratives in New England, which tend to center an unproblematized view of colonialism, and 3) work collaboratively with tribal leaders, land trusts, non-profits, and state agencies to expand tribal land access and rematriation and the policies that support sovereignty and self-determination. We regularly conduct ecological research on questions important to the tribe, give persentations and create educational materials for non-Indigenous-led groups, and convene meetings between tribal members and state agencies and land trusts. Check out a recent study abstract by Anagali Duncan, presented at the Ecological Society of America annual meeting in 2024.

With colleagues Tim Rademacher, Taylor Jones, Flossie Chua, and Tina Grotzer, I co-manage the Witness Tree Social Media research and outreach project. This work has benefitted from a grant from the Harvard Climate Change Solutions Fund (2020-2023), vital contributions by students Shawna Greyeyes (2019) and Kyle Wyche (2018), and Brooklyn public school educator Elisa Margarita.