Class Year
Current Hometown:
Mount Rainier, MD
Job and Employer
Work:
My work focuses on addressing global deforestation using a range of international legal and policy tools. It involves assessing the drivers of deforestation and determining which we can influence. The approaches range from reviewing US index funds and their connections to clearing tropical rainforests to plant oil palm, identifying where implementation of legal provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species falls short, improving enforcement laws in demand-side countries to reduce illegal harvest and export of timber, and much more.
Community work & family
Our daughter will be two in October, and has just started to let us sleep until 7am, which is wonderful. She is full of energy and delight, helping us garden, fix things in our 1912 farmhouse, and make muffins.
Graduate School
Graduation Year
Degree
Senior project:
Internship:
Human ecology in action:
When trying to address a problem, I think about the different causes and possible approaches to address it—at the local, national, and international levels, but also in coalitions with colleagues from different fields.
A COA experience that was particularly significant or memorable:
From my first official COA adventure—climbing Mt. Katahdin—to the decidedly unsanctioned nighttime paddle to Bar Island with bioluminescent eddies trailing behind us, so many of my experiences were imbued with an element of wonder.
Considerations for prospective students:
COA is not about checking boxes or fulfilling prerequisites, it’s a place for passionate, creative, driven individuals to learn and decide how to apply that passion in the world, both during and after COA.
I can’t imagine having gone to a “traditional” liberal arts school after having had the opportunity at College of the Atlantic to study law, paint, learn music theory, sew a quilt, find an exchange program and go to France, turn compost, join a group study to read Russian literature, convince a professor to guide me through an independent study of the International Monetary Fund, philosophize, fix bikes, participate in committees and decisions affecting the direction of the school, and so many other things I learned from professors, fellow students, administration, and staff. At the same time the freedom to leave COA during several trimesters to pursue internships, study abroad, travel, and other projects, broadened my learning to encompass other countries and contexts.