I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at NCEAS (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis). In my research I draw on the fields of conservation biology, landscape ecology, plant community ecology, epidemiology, and more recently, economics. At NCEAS I am working on a project to assess the ecosystem and economic impacts of non-native forest pests and pathogens. I work closely with The Nature Conservancy on this project. In addition I have studied the distribution of tree and bird communities and species in the northern karst forest of Puerto Rico through a David H. Smith Fellowship; the relationships of understory plant communities, microclimate, and induced overstory heterogeneity in Pacific Northwest (USA) forests as they apply to management of resources for multiple values; and the spatial distribution and dispersal of desert mistletoes by Phainopeplas at multiple scales in the Sonoran desert (Arizona). I continue to work on these and related topics.