Environmentalist
Scientist
Activist
Ecophile by nature, activist by necessity
Raised amongst the Appalachian Mountains of Pennsylvania, I developed a deep appreciation for nature from the moment I was allowed to run off into the woods right behind my home. It wasn’t until I moved to the city (Philadelphia) for college that I realized how fortunate I was to have that kind of immediate access to nature. Upon graduation, I abandoned the big city and moved to Santa Barbara, California, nestled between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, to reconnect with my inner ecophile.
I am currently a graduate student at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at University of California Santa Barbara, harbingers of the first Earth Day. I study the application of ecohydrological modelling to understand fundamental questions of how mountain ecosystems will adapt to climate change. My research has important implications for fire risk, forest mortality, and water resource management in California, a state whose water woes will become increasingly stressed in the future as the crucial mountain snowpack disappears. I hope to contribute to solving some of the world’s most pressing environmental problems.
I also hope that you will join me as we educate ourselves on the state of our planet. And furthermore, I hope that together we can engage in environmental activism to bring about positive societal change. I got my start in activism at Temple University’s Students for Environmental Action (shout out to SEA E-board 2016!), where we organized 50 students to bus it to New York City for the People’s Climate March, a massive, inspiring rally that woke up the world to climate change. We owe it to future generations to preserve the generational wealth that lies in the Earth’s natural environment. Now it is up to each of us to continue that fight!
Ecophile 