LinkedIn/ CV / Bio
I am a bird-friendly building policy researcher and advocate based in the Eastern United States. Through my work, I help people to appreciate the complex lives of birds and how our decisions about building and development affect birds and human communities.
My passion for bird conservation is evident in my advocacy and applied research. As the former co-chair of Lights Out Connecticut, a nonprofit project of Menunkatuck Audubon Society, I co-led a successful statewide campaign to pass Public Act No. 23-143, “CT's Lights Out bill," which requires state agencies to turn off all unnecessary nighttime lights year-round for birds. The bill is expected to save Connecticut $1.6 million annually. I also regularly collaborate on local initiatives. In 2024, I helped advocates in Greenwich to pass a comprehensive municipal outdoor lighting law based on Dark Sky International's model ordinance. I also co-authored the Model Outdoor Lighting Regulations for Connecticut to inspire better local lighting laws.
From 2022-2023, I served as the policy researcher for the Yale Bird-friendly Building Initiative, a collaborative project of Yale Law School and American Bird Conservancy. In that role, I co-authored Building Safer Cities for Birds: How Cities Are Leading the Way on Bird-Friendly Building Policy, a first-of-its-kind report analyzing bird-friendly building policymaking in five U.S. cities.
My PhD research at SUNY ESF investigates why some cities have bird-friendly building policies and others don't. I combine public policy analysis, political ecology, and environmental ethics to explain how birds in the United States and Canada are moving from objects of national and state/provincial conservation regimes to political subjects worthy of specialized municipal policy benefits.
I hold an M.A. in history from the University of Chicago and an MDiv in religion and ecology from Yale Divinity School.
