Hi! I'm a doctoral candidate and research assistant in the Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management at North Carolina State University. My research focus is on adaptive capacity of communities to climate change, and I'm conducting my dissertation research in southern Mexico with a group of communities called the Pueblos Mancomunados. "Commonwealth Communities" in English, the Pueblos Mancomunados have managed their natural resources comunally for generations and in the early 1990's started an ecotourism business, Expediciones Sierra Norte, to provide jobs and to protect their natural and cultural heritage.

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries in the world, and nature-based tourism is growing at a faster rate than tourism in general. Anthropogenic climate change is causing and will cause communities and individuals worldwide to alter the way they think, live, and vacation. I'd like to discover what the Pueblos Mancomunados can do to help themselves in the face of a climate-altered future.

I am also a birder and am very interested in the benefits of birding tourism to rural communities worldwide. I've been working on a project through NC State Tourism Extension with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission NC Birding Trail to discover how birders make travel decisions, and how climate change might alter those decisions. We're in the process of creating an online Birder Friendly Business certification program in which entrepreneurs can become certified as birder friendly.

Please check out my Research page to learn more about my research interests and accomplishments.