Approach

Access to nature is not evenly shared, and losing everyday contact with nature, sometimes called the “extinction of experience,” weakens people’s connection to the environment and their concern for it.1 Students’ interest in environmental science grows from experiences that build confidence that they can do the work,2 so I see engagement as part of the research itself rather than an add-on. I work toward a community of practice: researchers, growers, tribes, agencies, schools, and the public collaborating on shared questions about the health of local ecosystems, rather than one-way outreach.

That has meant building partnerships across sectors, with Taylor Shellfish, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe, Bellingham Technical College, Puget Sound Restoration Fund, and NOAA, to study how physical drivers affect ecosystem health in the Salish Sea. In practice it looks like:

  • Bringing young people to the shore. As a Seattle Aquarium Beach Naturalist (2014-2018), I talked with K-12 students and visitors about how watersheds shape marine ecosystems and mentored K-12 students through the aquarium’s Youth Ocean Advocates program.
  • Opening field science to the public. After the June 2021 heat dome coincided with extreme low tides, I volunteered on Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network (MARINe) surveys documenting the damage to intertidal invertebrate populations. Citizen science is one of the most promising ways to restore people’s contact with nature,1 and the scale of that event showed how much trained community volunteers could add to monitoring as marine heatwaves become more frequent.
  • Working with tribal partners. Collaborating with the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe on climate impacts to shellfish taught me how much Indigenous knowledge and priorities strengthen ecological research, and I aim to center questions that matter to tribal co-managers.
  • Mentoring for access. Through programs including NSF’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, I have mentored students from backgrounds underrepresented in science, and in teaching I highlight the contributions of women and scientists of color.

Service and mentoring

  • 2024-2025Diversity Advisory Committee, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
  • 2022-2023Postdoctoral Representative, Equity and Inclusion Committee, UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences
  • 2021-2022Mentor, Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), National Science Foundation
  • 2019-2020Mentor, Summer Undergraduate Internship Program, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
  • 2018-2019Mentor, Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, Center for Clinical and Translational Science, Mayo Clinic
  • 2014-2018Beach Naturalist and Outreach Coordinator, Seattle Aquarium
  • 2014-2016Mentor, STEM Out! Outreach Program, American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • 2011-2012Science Outreach Mentor, Friday Harbor Laboratories
  • 2008-2010Mentor, K-12 Science in Action Outreach Program, Gonzaga University

Peer review

I regularly review for journals including Aquaculture, Scientific Reports, Environmental Science & Technology, BMC Genomics, and Global Change Biology.

Professional memberships

Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association (2020-present) · National Shellfisheries Association (2017-present) · Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (2009-present) · Western Society of Naturalists (2015-2018)

Public talks

Talks for growers, managers, and the public, such as Ocean acidification and mussel farming in the Puget Sound (Sound Waters University, 2017) and Hanging by a thread (Sunshine Rotary, Seattle, 2016), are listed with my scientific talks on the Presentations page. Media coverage is collected under In the News.

References

  1. Schuttler SG, Sorensen AE, Jordan RC, Cooper C, and Shwartz A (2018). Bridging the nature gap: can citizen science reverse the extinction of experience? Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 16(7):405-411. doi:10.1002/fee.1826
  2. Quimby JL, Seyala ND, and Wolfson JL (2007). Social cognitive predictors of interest in environmental science: recommendations for environmental educators. The Journal of Environmental Education 38(3):43-52. doi:10.3200/JOEE.38.3.43-52