About

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Hello! I am a cultural anthropologist and ethnobiologist with a specialty in Indigenous and Environmental studies. Since 2008, I have implemented community-based, engaged, and Indigenous methodologies to research and employment with Indigenous communities in the northeast region of the United States and Canada. I successfully completed my PhD in August of 2016. 

My doctoral dissertation is called The Restorative Ecology of Peace: Haudenosaunee Environmental Knowledge and Philosophies of Stewardship. It is based upon research over the course of six years (2010 - 2015), in the Iroquois/ Haudenosaunee communities of Six Nations of the Grand River, Akwesasne, Kahnawà:ke, and Onondaga Nation. My work is interdisciplinary, drawing from the fields of anthropology, ethnobiology, environmental studies, and Indigenous studies to understand human relationships with the natural world. I am deeply attuned to methods and ethics, drawing from Indigenous and anti-imperialist methodologies texts and protocols, the International Society of Ethnobiology code of ethics, and the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force (HETF) protocol for environmental research. My dissertation explores how political, kinship, sacred, oral historical, epistemological, ontological, and geographic components of Haudenosaunee culture all create the foundation of, and shape the transmission of, Haudenosaunee environmental knowledge (HEK). Drawing from extensive interviewing and participant learning, in my dissertation I synthesize elements of environmental knowledge that are commonly held among the Six Nations, to demonstrate the depth and distinction of HEK as a living, dynamic philosophy and science. I show how HEK is a philosophy rooted in place, and implemented in intertwined projects of cultural and environmental restoration and governance. Through my work, I advocates for the importance of HEK, and the rights to cultural regeneration and self-determination of Indigenous and marginalized communities, for bringing about global environmental sustainability, justice, and peace.

I was raised in the small town of Brattleboro, Vermont. From this rural upbringing, I became an international scholar, who values local food, learning by doing, gardening, the arts, integrity, and spending plenty of time outdoors on the land with rivers, forests, mountains and meadows. I am also a mom. I like collecting wild edibles, cooking, weaving baskets, seeing live music, attending artistic and cultural events, and visiting farmer's and open-air food markets. I've lived on four different continents, spending most of the last 20 years in Montréal, Six Nations of the Grand River, Boston, and New York. In this website, you will see how the variety of my life interests combine into common themes. My professional life is dedicated to meaningful research, community-based projects, and teaching that supports cross-cultural education, environmental education, and social and environmental justice.