About

I am a computational social scientist with a background in evolutionary theory, behavior, and cultural change, and a passion for conserving biocultural diversity and improving social good and sustainability.

Past and present projects include:

• working with researchers and U.S. state wildlife agencies to understand public values toward wildlife, prepare and implement strategies for systems change within agencies to adapt to increasing social change, and address the social issues surrounding wolf recovery in Colorado;
• determining the effects of cognitive biases on cultural transmission and the dynamics of cultural evolution, specifically the influence of prestige in determining what and from whom people choose to learn, and how the concept of prestige varies across cultures;
• improving reforestation efforts on Pine Ridge Reservation through the use of the Lean Six Sigma methodology and the application of machine learning techniques, ensuring long-term survival of seedlings under future conditions of climate change;
• illuminating the genetic, demographic, cultural, and linguistic history of the Chabu, an isolated and threatened group of hunter-gatherers in southwestern Ethiopia, and using these data to advocate for their rights and sovereignty;
• investigating differences in the use of the social learning mechanisms of imitation and emulation between young children in Western cultures and in non-Western hunter-gatherers and horticulturalists in the Central African Republic; and
• describing variation in the social behavior of gray wolves between captivity and the wild, as well as their potential for social learning and cultural variation in behavior.

Through the use of a data-centric scientific approach informed by experience in the biological and social sciences on how humans learn and behave, my work addresses the issues that arise from complex interactions between humans, society, and the environment.

Education

Skills