I co-produce research and capacity building initiatives with practitioners, scientists, and organizations to catalyze comprehensive food system change. I draw on agroecology and political ecology approaches to understand the multi-scalar drivers of and barriers to transforming agricultural systems as well as the community-level relationships between biodiversity, stewardship practices, and social-ecological outcomes. I strive to communicate research results beyond academia and ensure science impacts structural change. I am especially passionate about enabling just transitions to agroforestry. 

I serve as a board member for the Association for Temperate Agroforestry (AFTA) and formerly was a University of Hawaiʻi representative to Beyond the Academy, a network of interdisciplinary sustainability scholars.

I earned a PhD and MS in Botany from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a BA in Biology and Environmental Studies from Macalester College. I grew up gardening, restoring, and foraging in Southeastern Wisconsin.