My specialty is recreation ecology - a field of research that examines and tries to manage the environmental consequences of nature-based recreation. I work mostly in parks and protected areas such as national parks and national forests. In my research, I use spatially-based methods such as GPS tracking, GIS analysis, and vegetation mapping to study the relationship between visitor movements and the potential ecological impacts of these behaviors. I also use social science methods - such as visitor surveys - to understand the motivations, perceptions, and behaviors of visitors. My work is very applied and is often used to inform the management of visitor use in protected areas. In an earlier part of my life, I was a middle school and high school science teacher and still thoroughly enjoy teaching outdoor recreation science and management. When not working on research or teaching, I enjoy knitting, yoga, trail running, and recreating outdoors myself.