Biography & Scholarship
As a researcher, drawing on a co-design approach, I mobilize stakeholders to identify persistent problems of practice in their districts and communities. Together we learn about the root causes of these problems and enact action plans to implement and study solutions, which builds the internal capacity to overcome many wicked challenges. In differently resourced rural Idaho, supporting critical place-conscious adaptive leadership involves developing relationships built on trust. This co-design approach, leverages long-term collaborations with practitioners across several projects including but not limited to SOAR, WiSEN, iDrone, the Idaho Building Capacity (IBC) project, IKEEP, REwild and many unnamed others.
I have a particular passion for igniting sustainable Rural Education Change. I'm also the founder and education lead of the REwild partnership project. REwild elevates the promise of nature-based outdoor learning to support academic, social-emotional, and health outcomes for rural Idaho youth. This project grew out of my outreach and service to a rural district and community during COVID. Today the project has grown into a stable vehicle to support larger initiatives beyond its direct impact of supporting programming (in school and out of school) for over 5,400 youth as the project grows. Currently partners are REwilding elementary play yards and spearheading the planning for largest classroom in Idaho — a 10,000 acre watershed with the cities of Sandpoint, Ponderay, Kaniksu Land Trust, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Idaho Department of Lands, the Kalispel Tribe, and the National Parks Service.