Marine ecology and spatial planning. In June of 2009 I became the leader of the Marine Turtle Assessments program with NOAA Fisheries in Hawaii. Current research focuses on the spatial epidemiology of tumor-forming diseases, the role of climate in long term population dynamics, and the value of diver surveys for population planning. I aim for the program to develop new data streams for spatially-explicit and long-term understanding of turtle population variability in the Pacific Ocean and beyond. Before coming to NOAA, while researching the effects of global-warming-fueled hurricanes on sea turtle nesting, I discovered a new technique to document fishing trawlers impacts using satellite imagery. Check back soon!

Population variability and extinction I've been interested in endangered populations since witnessing the near extinction of the bald eagle in Chesapeake Bay as a child. Most of my work now is understanding population trends and their causes, mostly of protected or rare species. My dissertation reseach at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project in Brazil's Amazon focused on social and spatial behavior of forest birds and how that influence their population dynamics. More recent research in southern Africa documents how park managers were successful in introducing small populations of mammals - something that has been elusive. I've also used sophisticated models to focus management efforts for the critically endangered Cape Sable sparrow in the Florida Everglades.

Intersecting science, ethics, and theology. An ecologist and therefore a scientist by training, I spend much of my time understanding and preventing extinction through statistical modeling of population and geospatial data. But this only scratches the surface of the significance of extinction, the origins of justice, or how ethics may work in modern society. As a result, I lecture widely at churches and through the Veritas Forum. The video link to the left is from a Veritas lecture in the spring of 2009 at Emory University called Is God Green? - Jesus, the Church, and Caring for the Earth, hosted by Vimeo. My new book showcases the benefits of inter-disciplinary conversations of the underlying assumptions about nature and our relation to it.