Kate uses mixed ethnographic methods to unravel the intricate relationship between humanity and the natural world. Her work illuminates the ecological, social, and health-related drivers of human-environment interactions in sub-Saharan Africa. Specifically, how people turn to wild plants and animals in times of duress due to climate-change-induced resource scarcity. Her career includes a decade of leadership in field research teams, study abroad programs, and community engagement projects. Drawing on this wealth of expertise, she leads the Amani Foundation in northern Tanzania, which benefits the community she’s called home since she was a teenager. She believes in decolonialist approaches to participatory research and community engagement as the only pathway to actionable, data-driven solutions. Kate is a Research Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University and a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Penn State University with Dr. Sagan Friant.

Beyond this, Kate is a published natural illustrator & cartoonist. As a Wilderness EMT, she loves hiking, trail running, and any excuse to sleep outside under the stars (with a mosquito net).