I am a landscape ecologist with research interests in the ecological effects of global change, land change modeling and landscape conservation. I received my Ph.D. in ecology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and am currently Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources at North Carolina State University.
Much of my current research is funded by the USDA Forest Service, and involves investigating future forest dynamics across the U.S. in response to changes in climate, disturbances, land use and land management. Colleagues and I are producing future projections of forest conditions for the Forest Service’s Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment.
I use machine learning techniques, geospatial analysis, and simulation models to conduct my research, including R and Python programming, ArcGIS, and state-and-transition simulation models.
My other recent and ongoing research spans landscape ecology and conservation biology, including: modeling wildlife habitat connectivity in the southeastern U.S., simulating landscape dynamics under scenarios of bioenergy production in North Carolina, and mapping threats to ecosystems in the North American Coastal Plain – the world’s newest (and coolest!) global biodiversity hotspot. My previous research has focused on prescribed fire management in the longleaf pine ecosystem.
Please take a look at my publications and feel free to contact me.
Family Forests Are the Ties That Bind the Landscape in CompassLive.
Landscape context can help restoration priorities. My new coauthored paper is now online in Restoration Ecology.
Several ecosystems in the southeast are vulnerable to climate change. Our new report and public fact sheet have just been published.
We have two papers out now in Global Change Biology Bioenergy on the impacts of bioenergy scenarios on forests and wildlife in the U.S. Southeast.
These are my major experience and publications. Contact me for my full CV.