I have contributed to the improvement of land surface models and informed testimony before the National Congress of Brazil. During a 2019 spike in Amazon deforestation, my colleagues and I conducted hundreds of media interviews, correcting misinformation and raising public awareness about deforestation as the root cause of growing numbers of fires.
My interest in climate research was sparked in 1988 by seeing firsthand the impacts of severe drought on the Mississippi River, and by hearing the Congressional testimony of Drs. James Hansen and George Woodwell on climate change. Prior to joining Woodwell Climate Research Center, I spent seven years as a scientist at the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2014, I was in residence as a Fulbright Scholar at the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil, working with colleagues there to understand how massive deforestation in the savanna regions of Brazil are affecting climate now.
