I am an associate professor at Cal State East Bay (unceded Chochenyo Ohlone homelands) in the department of History and Global Cultures, with a courtesy appointment in the department of Earth, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences. As a descendant of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe, my pedagogy and scholarship are guided by anti-colonialism. My research is focused on the socioecology of small-scale subsistence practices, such as prescribed and cultural fire, and the political ecology of colonial land management and Indigenous struggles for autonomy. Through my doctoral education, I collaborated with Karuk and Yurok Indigenous peoples of the Klamath River watershed where I learned about Indigenous ecology, philosophy and social movements. This work was supported by my training in ecology and anthropology at Stanford and Cornell universities, as well as fellowships and grants from the National Science Foundation and the Joint Fire Science Program. Preceding my graduate education, I developed STEM and participatory research teaching skills at the Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley. I continue to conduct research on participatory and community-based environmental science, most recently funded by the California Climate Action grant.
