About Us
We are a group of 6 PhD students from disciplines ranging from tropical ecology and geoinformatics to critical conservation studies and geography. We share a common interest in using innovative interdisciplinary methods to understand pressing environmental issues. Our collaborative research is supported by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC).
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Core Members
Katherine Siegel, University of Colorado-Boulder (Co-PI)
Katherine Siegel is a NOAA Global Change & Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow in University of Colorado-Boulder. In 2021, she completed her PhD in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management at UC Berkeley. She studies the impacts of environmental shocks on linked social-ecological systems, with a current focus on the impacts of hurricanes on land use trends and conservation opportunities in the Caribbean. She sees this SESYNC project as an excellent opportunity to gain experience working on interdisciplinary teams, extend her research to a new region of the world, and learn with and from a group of talented collaborators. |
Meg Mills-Novoa, University of California-Berkeley (Co-PI)
Meg Mills-Novoa is an assistant professor in the Energy & Resources Group and Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management at UC Berkeley. She completed her PhD in the School of Geography, Development & Environment at the University of Arizona in 2021. Originally from the flat cornfields of central Minnesota, her research focuses on the transformation of agricultural landscapes and livelihoods under climate change in the Ecuadorian Andes. Prior to graduate school, she worked for five years as an agricultural adaptation researcher and practitioner, first as a Fulbright Fellow studying climate change impacts on Chilean vineyards and then as a Luce Scholar placed with the Centre for Rural Development in northern Vietnam. She is excited about co-leading the Ag Frontiers SESYNC grad pursuit because it braids together her interests in innovative multi-method inquiry, interdisciplinary team science, and agricultural land use change. |
Aldo Farah Perez, Florida International University
Aldo is a Costa Rican student doing his PhD at the Earth and Environment School of Florida International University. His current research focuses on the relationships between river flow and the responses of freshwater fishes in the Peruvian Amazon. He is also interested in exploring how these relationships could be at risk from multiple factors affecting the natural flow regimes of rivers. In the past, he has done research on the impacts of different types of dams and the mechanisms causing river fragmentation in the Neotropics. The interest in this project is to better understand the multiple processes that are interacting in the agricultural frontiers in the Amazon basin. |
Eva Kinnebrew, Colorado State University
Eva Kinnebrew is a postdoctoral fellow with the Colorado State University. In 2022, she received her PhD from the Rubenstein School of Natural Resources and Environment and the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont. Her research investigates the positive and negative relationships between agriculture and environmental conservation. Specifically, she uses remote sensing and geospatial analysis to understand land use change in response to political, economic, and environmental events. She also studies soil detritivore communities on farms to understand how they are affected by management practices and how they contribute to soil health. Eva grew up in Orange County, CA, and in her free time she loves to write music and bird watch. |
Elizabeth Shoffner, University of Washington
Elizabeth is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington, currently conducting fieldwork in Misiones, Argentina. Her research is situated at the intersection of political ecology and Indigenous studies, engaging the broad themes of conservation, environmentalism(s), and agriculture in Latin America, with a particular focus on the power relations and structural exclusions produced through environmental management practices. She received her master’s degree in agroecology from the Universidad de Córdoba (Spain) and her BS in architecture from the University of Virginia. Elizabeth appreciates tea, solitude, tending plants, thinking collaboratively, building community and bailando cumbia. |
José I. Ochoa-Brito, University of California, Davis
José (Pepe) is a Senior Scientist at the Spatial Informatics Group (SIG). He received his PhD in Geography, at UC Davis in 2020. He obtained a B.Eng. in Computer Sciences from Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador, and a M.S. in Remote Sensing from Universitat de València, Spain. He has wide experience in diverse research projects using optical and radar satellite data. His most recent work includes land cover change time series and forest quantification in Pastaza, Ecuador for the University of California, Merced. He has also worked in evaluating and developing evapotranspiration (ET) models in humid subtropical and semi-arid climates within the DEVELOP NASA’s Applied Sciences Program, and for the Department of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California, Davis (UC Davis) as a graduate student researcher. He mostly uses the platforms Google Earth Engine with JavaScript, ENVI, and R. |
Mentors
Dr. Ciniro Costa Junior, Imaflora
Dr. Costa holds a doctoral degree in Sciences: Chemistry in Agriculture and Environment from University of São Paulo, Brazil. He is currently a Climate and Agriculture Analyst at IMAFLORA, a Brazilian NGO that has worked with forestry and agriculture management and certification for 20 years. Overall, his work has been focused on climate change and adaptation assessments for major agricultural value chains; managing a large greenhouse gas emissions database; feasibility assessments for carbon crediting and marketing; and translating science into assessable materials.
Dr. Costa holds a doctoral degree in Sciences: Chemistry in Agriculture and Environment from University of São Paulo, Brazil. He is currently a Climate and Agriculture Analyst at IMAFLORA, a Brazilian NGO that has worked with forestry and agriculture management and certification for 20 years. Overall, his work has been focused on climate change and adaptation assessments for major agricultural value chains; managing a large greenhouse gas emissions database; feasibility assessments for carbon crediting and marketing; and translating science into assessable materials.
Dr. Rachel Golden Kroner, Conservation International
Dr. Golden Kroner has a PhD in Environmental Science and Policy from George Mason University. She is a social scientist at Conservation International's Moore Center for Science, where she focuses on environmental governance and conservation impact evaluation. She has led projects on legal changes to protected areas around the world, with a focus on Amazonia, assessing the ecological, economic, and social impacts of these changes.
Dr. Golden Kroner has a PhD in Environmental Science and Policy from George Mason University. She is a social scientist at Conservation International's Moore Center for Science, where she focuses on environmental governance and conservation impact evaluation. She has led projects on legal changes to protected areas around the world, with a focus on Amazonia, assessing the ecological, economic, and social impacts of these changes.