Building on an early career in finance and agriculture, I have nearly 10 years of academic and professional experience in environmental conservation, natural resource management, and rural economic development. During my conservation career, I have been fortunate to have opportunities to pursue environmental and socioeconomic research in North America and Africa (Malawi), and to work for some remarkable local and global conservation organizations. I was previously the Deputy Director for Conservation at a regional land trust in California, U.S.A., where I helped to raise over $9 million USD for high priority land and natural resource protection projects. Most recently, I led land protection projects for The Nature Conservancy, helping to secure permanent legal protections for approximately 38,000 acres of multi-use lands in California that support sustainable agricultural enterprises alongside wildlife protection. In addition to my career, I am honored to be a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) and the Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group (SULi). I am currently pursuing my PhD in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at Colorado State University, where I am a Leopold Schepp Foundation Scholar and a graduate researcher in the Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence. My research is supervised by Dr. Jonathan Salerno, who has spent over 15 years working in Southern and Eastern Africa, and has longstanding research collaborations in Tanzania.