Teaching
I teach students to use environmental science to solve real problems. Structured courses build scientific, analytical, and communication skills; field research extends that work through mentorship and applied conservation practice.
Teaching in the Classroom
My courses use case studies, real data, collaborative problem solving, and projects connected to environmental questions outside the classroom. They serve graduate students entering environmental careers from varied academic backgrounds as well as undergraduates studying community-based conservation.
Introduces global environmental challenges through natural and social science perspectives, then applies foundations in Earth systems, ecosystem function, biodiversity, geology, and nutrient cycling to evidence-based solutions spanning health and sustainability.
Uses real socioenvironmental data and R to develop skills in database management, exploratory analysis, regression, model selection, and the interpretation of evidence through an original research project.
Develops students' ability to identify, explore, and communicate insights from environmental data through charts, maps, presentations, open-source software, and modern AI tools.
Builds the scientific foundation needed to understand geology, nutrient cycling, biodiversity, conservation, ecology, evolution, population dynamics, ecosystem function, and relationships among Earth's systems.
Examines life-cycle assessment, urban metabolism, water, food and agriculture, nature-based solutions, and natural-resource management through interdisciplinary case studies and data-supported recommendations.
Uses international case studies to examine sustainable natural-resource use through conservation practices led by local and Indigenous communities, with attention to science, policy, ethics, knowledge systems, and livelihoods.
Teaching in the Field
In tidal wetlands and Amazonian forests, students work with the organisms, environmental conditions, researchers, and community partners represented in classroom datasets. These are research experiences: students help design studies, deploy equipment, collect samples, analyze data, and communicate findings.
University field teaching
For three consecutive years, I have taken Georgetown students to the Peruvian Amazon to conduct conservation research alongside Indigenous collaborators. Students learn camera trapping, GPS use, orienteering, spatial data collection, environmental DNA methods, and wildlife research techniques.
They also learn how local knowledge informs research design, how community priorities shape conservation projects, and how scientists work respectfully as guests on ancestral lands.
President of ACEER
ACEER focuses on experiential environmental education, conservation, and the development of emerging conservation leaders in the Amazon. I direct its Conservation Leaders Program, which provides emerging conservationists with intensive field experience, research training, scientific writing experience, and individualized mentorship in the Peruvian Amazon.
The program brings young conservation professionals from Amazonian regions together with international students so they can learn and conduct research alongside one another.
Field research assistants
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Student experience
Students describe challenge, support, and applied learning.
Selected anonymous responses from individual Georgetown course evaluations. Comments are reproduced verbatim.