I am a social ecologist and settler academic living and working on unceded Wabanaki territory – Maine, USA. The escalating climate crisis and its devastating impacts on human and natural systems only emphasizes the imperative to better understand how and in what ways people experience connection to nature, and much of my scholarship and research is in response to the mounting repercussions of anthropocentric thinking. My primary research focus is in the nascent field of relational values. My scholarly and professional trajectory is deeply rooted in sustainability education, community engagement, and contemplative pedagogies, and I am currently developing an instructional framework that models Freire’s praxis of “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it,” integrating relational- and eco-pedagogies into a transformative pedagogical approach.

I work in higher education and currently serve as Associate Dean of Environmental Graduate Studies at Unity Environmental University. I have extensive professional experience with academic community-based and project-based learning and research, as well as contemplative pedagogies and reflexive praxis.

In 2007 I authored A Settled Mind, the groundbreaking K-12 curriculum guide for mindfulness and reflection in the classroom, and I continue to occasionally release guided meditation and ambient recordings.

As a creative, I explore themes of impermanence in the natural world, closely observing shifting skies and flora and fauna in all stages of living and dying through photo manipulation, poetry, prose, and music.