I'm a wildlife ecologist by training, and the current Senior Conservation Data Scientist at a U.S. non-profit organization called Defenders of Wildlife. I work with a team focused on improving wildlife conservation through innovative uses of science, technology, and policy. In my current role, I lead the teams' use of remote sensing and geospatial data, and AI to conduct analyses and develop tools that can make wildlife conservation more efficient and effective. For some time now, I have been haunted by the sense that any efforts to conserve biodiversity, protect the environment, and combat climate change are fundamentally inhibited by the design of global economic systems. Convinced that conservation of any kind is ultimately limited by economic design, I now want to learn more about the theory, tools, and data that economists use to evaluate alternative models. I hope to find a way to contribute to the effort to shift local and national economic systems into the doughnut.
