Succinct Science—Audio Interviews from SESYNC (Podcast)

Dr. Quentin Read first arrived at SESYNC in 2018 as a postdoctoral research fellow working with the Food Waste and Environment group, investigating the environmental impacts of food waste throughout the food supply chain. In 2019, he joined SESYNC's data science team, helping SESYNC researchers and working groups with data analysis, visualization, processing, and management. He also developed and taught lessons for SESYNC’s data science curriculum and maintained the rslurm package to lower barriers to access to SESYNC’s high-performance computing cluster. 

In his work, Quentin used big open data to understand how humans influence the natural world. His SESYNC research involved: 

1. Identifying the sectors of the U. S. economy that are the most responsible for the food system's environmental impacts
2. Assessing the effectiveness of proposed interventions and technologies to reduce food waste
3. Incorporating biodiversity into environmental assessments of food production and consumption. 

An ecologist by training, Quentin earned his PhD at the University of Tennessee and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in spatial and community ecology at Michigan State University before coming to SESYNC. Please see Quentin's website for more information on his publications and research interests.

External Links:
https://http://quentinread.com
https://github.com/qdread
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nW17_vcAAAAJ&hl=en
https://quentinread.com/files/qread_cv.pdf

Dr. Kelly Jones was a postdoctoral fellow at SESYNC from 2018-2020. As a postdoc, Kelly examined the role of neighborhood environments in exacerbating pediatric asthma—resulting in a call, in conjunction with DC Health, to make hyperlocal patient information available to public health researchers. After her SESYNC tenure, Kelly briefly returned to her alma mater, the University of Illinois Chicago, to help launch a study examining the role of activity space exposure and stress on diet and physical activity behaviors in middle-aged adults. Following this work, she accepted a role as a Research Fellow in the Neighborhoods and Health Lab of the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health. Kelly enjoys spending time outside with her dog, reading, and cooking. She looks forward to continuing to collaborate with the ecologists, urban planners, and biometeorologists she got to know while at SESYNC.

Dr. Varsha Vijay is an interdisciplinary conservation scientist. She is currently the Technical Director for the Science Based Targets Network, a major multi-organization science-based ecosystem targets initiative. In this role, she leads research on approaches for measuring and evaluating global nature-based sustainability targets for companies and civil entities.

Prior to this leadership role, Varsha was a postdoctoral research fellow at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), University of Tennessee, while holding a joint appointment as a Solutions Engineer at terraPulse, a remote sensing startup. She was also a part of the BIPOC-led consulting organization, Kedge Consulting, working directly with environmental organizations to inform conservation approaches that center on human rights and environmental justice. Before joining SESYNC in 2018 as a postdoctoral fellow, Varsha completed both her BS and PhD in Environmental Sciences at Duke University.

Varsha investigates global biodiversity and anthropogenic land use using a socio-ecological systems perspective to inform more effective and equitable conservation outcomes. Her work focuses on interrelated research areas that address three primary questions: 1) What are the impacts of human activities on biodiversity and conservation efforts? 2) Can we identify emerging threats to biodiversity and predict where they will occur? 3) How do stakeholder values and interests impact investments and support for conservation? Varsha fuses quantitative approaches from landscape ecology, remote sensing, data science, and mathematical modeling with qualitative analysis and community-based, participatory research approaches. This research has produced actionable insights that have been used in strategic planning by the Pew Charitable Trusts, International Union for Conservation of Nature, European Commission, World Bank, and Oxfam. Her work has been covered by the BBC, National Geographic, and Mongabay, among others. Varsha also teaches and mentors through programs that reduce barriers to access for underrepresented identities in STEM.

External Links:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=UreDmQIAAAAJ
https://www.varshavijay.com/

Dr. Katherine Lacasse is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rhode Island College. She is a social psychologist broadly interested in understanding human-risk perception, decision making, and behavior change. She conducts much of her work as part of interdisciplinary teams, working on integrating human behavioral feedbacks into the modeling of the climate and local ecological systems.

Dr. Brian Beckage is an ecologist broadly interested in population and community dynamics including tree demography, maintenance of species richness, and the ecological effects of climate change. He emphasizes the use of quantitative approaches to investigate the mechanisms structuring ecological systems, including statistical models, analytical models, and computer simulation models.

Dr. Epanchin-Niell is both a Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future and an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Her research focuses on ecosystem management, particularly understanding how human behavior affects ecological resources and identifying strategies to improve management. She applies integrated biophysical and economic analyses, engages stakeholders and decision-makers to identify policy needs, and is a frequent collaborator with natural and social scientists. Her current research includes development of decision-support models for cost-effective management of invasive species, evaluation of contributing factors to successful proactive conservation of imperiled species, collaborative approaches to cross-boundary resource management, and design and evaluation of strategies for adaptation to sea level rise and saltwater intrusion in the Chesapeake Bay. 

Dr. Wilson is a Professor of Risk Analysis and Decision Science and Acting Associate Director of the School of Environment and Natural Resources at The Ohio State University. Her work has focused primarily on the interplay between intuitive and analytic information processing and the influence this has on risk perception and ultimately judgment or choice behavior. She is also interested in the development of risk communication and decision support tools to inform decision making and risk management. Her current research focus is on adaptation to climate-exacerbated hazards (e.g., wildfire, algal blooms), and what motivates and constrains different land use and land management decisions on private and public lands.

John has been working at the intersection of water, climate adaptation, and resilience since 2007. His work explores how we define, develop, and accelerate the uptake of our emerging set of best practices for climate resilience.

John started and led WWF’s freshwater climate adaptation program in 2007 before co-founding the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation (AGWA) in 2010, where he remains the Executive Director. He has led the development of a variety of climate risk reduction methodologies that have been used in dozens of countries, prepared green bond criteria that have certified more than 15 billion USD in water resilience investments across six continents, and advised well over 100 countries on their national climate commitments.

Current work includes developing a new generation of resilience indicators, leading the development and implementation of a national climate planning tool, working with businesses to incorporate resilience within operations, heading a program to engage macroeconomic planners and central bankers to blend resilience with traditional economic evaluation approaches, and contributing to large-scale technical climate risk assessments.

Beyond AGWA, John is a Senior Water Fellow at Colorado State University and Water Resources Courtesy Faculty at Oregon State University, an advisor to the Shockwave Foundation, and on the board of Living in Kindness. John received a doctorate in ecology, evolution, and behavioral ecology from the University of Texas, Austin, and a Bachelor of Arts in ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago. Before becoming a freshwater ecologist, John worked as a book editor in publishing for 12 years. He lives in Corvallis, Oregon, with his wife and son.

Lori Peek is a professor in the Department of Sociology and director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. She studies vulnerable populations in disaster and is author of Behind the Backlash: Muslim Americans after 9/11, co-editor of Displaced: Life in the Katrina Diaspora, and co-author of Children of Katrina. Lori has conducted field investigations in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina, the BP Oil Spill, the Christchurch earthquakes, the Joplin tornado, Superstorm Sandy, and Hurricane Matthew. She is the principal investigator for the NSF-funded CONVERGE facility, which is dedicated to improving research coordination and advancing the ethical conduct and scientific rigor of disaster research.

Alaina Gallagher is the Assistant Director of Communications at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). In this role, she leads the communications team in developing communication products that help to promote the mission and research accomplishments of the SESYNC network. Most recently, Alaina led the Center's effort to design and develop a new public-facing website. With a speciality in strategic communications and technical writing/editing, Alaina enjoys translating scientific/technical content into language that is informative and accessible for all audiences—in turn, broadening the reach of unique and exciting scientific discoveries.

Prior to joining SESYNC in 2019, Alaina worked at a consulting firm, providing technical communications support to various state, federal, and NGO clients in the energy sector, particularly the U.S. Department of Energy. Her previous experience also includes working at a small publishing firm specializing in education and health care and at an online education company.

Alaina earned her bachelor's degrees in English and Italian from the Pennsylvania State University, where she graduated with distinction.

Erin Duffy is a Communications Associate at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC). In this role, she supports the communications team in designing and developing communication products that disseminate the vast knowledge created by SESYNC researchers worldwide. Inspired by the Center’s diverse and interesting projects and participants, Erin developed a podcast, Succinct Science—Audio Interviews from SESYNC, to help integrate intellectually expansive information into everyday life.  

Passionate about community, individual, and environmental health and well-being, Erin has worked in a variety of roles, including environmental educator; marketing associate for a social service organization, and community garden coordinator for a food bank, both through AmeriCorps; as well as a caregiver for adults with differing physical and intellectual abilities. 

Erin earned a bachelor's degree in Environmental Policy and Science, and she has continued to pursue educational opportunities, most recently by becoming a certified yoga instructor and positive psychology practitioner.