Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2021-2022

Ph.D. Student, Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability

Research Summary: To learn more about the [often] paradoxical objectives of food production and natural resource conservation, I am studying collaborative grazing management on Colorado government-owned rangelands. I address these landscapes as complex systems, using a holistic research model to evaluate the pillars of sustainability, ecological-social-economic. The ecological component assesses soil and vegetation health. The socio-economic component explores stakeholder values and perspectives. Finally, I will create a dynamic model illustrating relationships and patterns among these data. This interactive tool will provide a unique means of circling results back to stakeholders to inform adaptive and integrated decision-making through visualization of context-specific management alternatives.