As a data scientist, I employ a variety of ecoinformatic tools to understand and improve the sustainability of complex social-ecological systems.  I also apply Science and Technology Studies lenses to my modeling processes in order to see potential ways to make social-ecological system management more just.  I prefer to work collaboratively with communities on modeling: teaching mapping and modeling skills, collaboratively building data representations and models, and analyzing and synthesizing community-held data as appropriate. At the same time, I look for ways to create space for qualitative and other forms of knowledge to reside alongside quantitative analysis, using mixed and integrative methods.

Recent projects include: 1) Studying Californian forest dynamics using Bayesian statistical models and object-based image analysis (datasets included forest inventories and historical aerial photographs); 2) Indigenous mapping and community-based modeling of agro-pastoral systems in rural Zimbabwe (methods included GPS/GIS, agent-based modeling and social network analysis); 3) Supporting Tribal science and environmental management on the Klamath River in California using historical aerial image analysis of land use/land cover change and social networks analysis of water quality management processes; 4) Bayesian statistical modeling of community-collected data on human uses of Marine Protected Areas in California.

I am a computational archaeologist and Professor of Anthropology at San Diego State University, where I direct the Computational Archaeology Laboratory. My research integrates geospatial analysis, agent-based and simulation modeling, and complex adaptive systems theory to investigate long-term human–environment interactions, with particular attention to socio-environmental change associated with early farming and herding in Mediterranean and other semi-arid landscapes. I have conducted field and modeling research in regions including Italy, Jordan, and Central Asia, and my work spans landscape archaeology, land-use dynamics, and environmental modeling. I have been a member of the CoMSES community for well over a decade and have contributed multiple models to the Computational Model Library, several of which have undergone formal peer review. In addition to research, I regularly teach with agent-based models at undergraduate and graduate levels and use CoMSES models as both research and pedagogical resources. I am committed to open, reproducible, and theoretically informed computational modeling and to strengthening the role of peer-reviewed models as durable scholarly contributions.

I have a backround in computer science, worked in natural resource management, and ended up with a PhD in Sustainability Sciences!