About Me
Bio
I am an experienced non-profit leader and applied socioenvironmental researcher/practitioner with a background in media and the arts. I am currently executive director of the Wright-Ingraham Institute, an environmental research and education non-profit registered in Colorado. I co-lead Bifrost Online, an international research publication promoting climate change awareness, and am founding director of Green My Favela (GMF), an urban gardening and land use restoration project based in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro—a project showcased by the UN and Inter-American Development Bank. For several years, I have been on the steering committee for the Humanities for the Environment Circumpolar Observatory, and in 2022 was an invited to be a principal investigator for NOAA Sea Grant to assess transdisciplinary novel solutions for combating sea-level rise in Virginia and Louisiana. Formerly I led the Communications Working Group for BRIDGES, taught sustainability through immersion learning at FGCU, and was a communications consultant for the Peace and Justice Studies Association (US/Canada). Prior to this I was an advisor to the Integrated Media and Art and Technology programs at Cal Arts, a member of the Institute for Australian Geographers and of New York Women in Film and Television. I have previously held positions as executive director of the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe (NM), executive director of Gigantic ArtSpace (NY), media director at the former Center for Peace and Human Security (NY), professor of media and communications at Pratt Institute (NY), director of Harmonic Ranch (NY), executive producer at Simon & Schuster (NY), and cultural advisor for Advance (Australian consulate in NY). I have also been a special envoy for the European-based Open & Agile Smart Cities, an advisor to the European Urban IxD program, a research fellow at the Center for Art and the Environment (NV), and a consultant for the international sustainability network GlobalCAD. I have sat on numerous advisory panels including for NYFA, SVA, Parsons, Amnesty International, the MacArthur award, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. My PhD research focused on developing creative, transdisciplinary practices for reclaiming degraded space in areas where people are living under extreme socio-economic and environmental stress. I have worked extensively with ethnic minorities and marginalized communities, including in conflict zones in Burma, on large-scale land use reclamation projects on the Navajo Nation, and through Green My Favela, worked with Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Secretary for the Environment’s Hortas Cariocas project to help establish the largest urban organic food garden in Latin America.
Skills & Experience
Effective executive director & project consultant
Expert in sustainability and socio-environmental restoration
Skilled in designing and leading multi-scale social, environmental & cultural impact projects
Extensive media and communications design, curatorial and publishing experience
Accomplished transdisciplinary researcher, practitioner, scholar and author
Specialist in educational outreach and immersion learning environments
Areas of Expertise
Integrative sustainability
Media & communications design
Capacity-building & stakeholder security
Socio-environmental recovery & governance
Organic urban agriculture and land use restoration
Resource recovery, resilience & circularity
Community investing & Inclusivity
Culture, arts & curatorship
Education
Doctorate of Philosophy, Creative strategies for sustainability in areas under extreme social and environmental stress, Art/Law/Education, Griffith University
Master of Arts, Climate change and socio-environmental impact in the South American Andes. Media & Communications, Pratt Institute/SCU
Honors, First Class, Climate change and potential implications in South Asia, Film & Interactive Media, Pratt Institute/SCU
Bachelor of Arts, Visual Arts and Music Video, Southern Cross University