I am an environmental researcher, architect, ecologist, and educator. My work focuses on carbon, climate change, urban design, building materials, and social justice.
Ecological problems are tough, thorny messes. I am interested in real-life, problems that don’t fit neatly into one disciplinary bucket; in complex systems that can’t really be understood by relying on one perspective. For this reason, my work straddles practice, research and theory. It relies on scientific research, imagination and a good deal of speculation. It relies completely on deep collaboration and teamwork.
I am a Senior Researcher at the Carbon Leadership Forum, at the University of Washington, where I work to develop open-access embodied carbon and LCA data, tools, and methods to support the building sector in radically decarbonizing construction. I also lead the group’s work on cross-sector biogenic carbon accounting and material flow modeling.
Before coming to the CLF, I worked for nine years as a Principal and Environmental Researcher at KieranTimberlake Architects where I helped lead the office’s research on embodied carbon, material health, and environmental impacts. I led the materials database development for Tally®, a custom LCA application that allows architects to calculate the environmental impacts of their building material choices.
I am also a lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, a Co-Editor-In-Chief of Scenario Journal, and serve on the Steering Committee for Architects Declare.
My work investigates the interaction between the natural and constructed environment, including embodied carbon, life cycle assessment (LCA), urban ecology, landscape performance and supply chains and toxicity of building materials. Combining a background in environmental science and architectural design, I aim to build bridges between research and practice, bringing data-driven analysis and topical research to complex design problems.
