My work centers on understanding and improving the relationship between people, economies, and the natural world. As an economist, photographer, pilot, and woodsman, I’ve developed a multifaceted perspective on our challenges, especially environmental and ecosystem issues. I aim to use my experience to help answer key questions and contribute to lasting solutions.

As an economist, I’m dedicated to deepening our understanding of how human societies and natural systems shape one another. My research has focused on the American West's environment, specifically how climate and weather influence migration and settlement patterns. This lens informs decision-making by grounding it in statistics, causal inference, an understanding of differential responses, and a long-term view of how people interact with their environment.

Photography allows me to document the natural world and encourage others to engage with wildlife conservation. As a contributor to iNaturalist, I’ve documented over 3,600 observations and 900 species, primarily in Colorado, highlighting the richness of local biodiversity. I am most interested in photographing and understanding mammalian predators and how they interact with human communities, especially agricultural ones. I have hosted and participated in public outreach events, and my photos have been featured in magazines and books, received awards, and played a central role in my membership at the Explorers Club.

Outside of photography, I love spending time in the Colorado woods: climbing mountains, navigating, backpacking, tracking wildlife, hunting, and fishing. I’ve maintained my Wilderness First Responder certification through WMA for my adult life, and I’ll be happy to help if you’re hemorrhaging from a moose trampling or suffered head trauma from a falling rock atop a mountain. I’ve climbed 40 of Colorado’s 13,000-foot peaks, including all of the Indian Peaks, excluding Apache—hopefully next year.

I value public lands and waters highly and feel exceptionally fortunate to have grown up and lived in a place that affords so much access. Maintaining access to the backcountry for exploring, climbing, wildlife viewing, hunting, and fishing (powered by two legs) for future generations is the most important thing to me. My life's work is understanding the complex interplay between public lands owned and operated by different entities and private lands and interests, and designing lasting solutions for how to best use our lands for biodiversity, stability, and prosperity.

Finally, as a commercially licensed pilot, I work part-time as a tow pilot for Mile High Gliding. Though I am currently on a hiatus following the birth of our first son (!) My long-term goal is to apply aviation to conservation—using small aircraft for wildlife research, population surveys, and accessing remote areas. This sort of flying is highly demanding and requires years of local experience and expertise. Flying also offers a unique vantage point for conservation work and provides a grounding counterbalance to my other pursuits, which are often more abstract and slower to yield feedback.