My research program focuses on understanding the social bases of environmental attitudes and beliefs, public perceptions of science and scientists, and analyzing inter-organizational relationships among public and private sector actors engaged in environmental management. I have conducted applied sociological research and developed methods for integrating social, natural, and physical science data to support policy-making and natural resource management in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), and the USDA Rural Development Program. I was a principal investigator on the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded New England Sustainability Consortium Project that investigated how social and institutional factors affect scientific engagement in coastal management in New England. I am interested in exploring how public perceptions of science and scientific practice influence policy debates such as those related to climate change, ocean and fisheries management, and global health pandemics. Current projects include investigating how access to scientific information and scientists’ engagement influence beliefs and attitudes about aquaculture development in Maine and an international collaboration with colleagues in Brazil and Ecuador studying water management and the social and economic implications of climate change for communities and the environment in the Amazon Basin. Prior to coming to UNH, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the NOAA Coastal Services Center and NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center and a USAID Population and Environment Fellow working with Pathfinder International in Salvador, Brazil. More recently, I was a Fulbright Scholar at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Florianópolis, Brazil in 2014-2015.
