I am a Franciscan Friar, and the Faith, Ethics & Vocation Project Director in the Environmental Studies Institute at Santa Clara University. I am an interdisciplinary environmental scholar who studies how values, ethics, institutions and the expansion of knowledge shape nature/society relations. Active areas of research include:

1. Agroecology, biological control, scientific institutions and the environment;
2. Religion and environmental leadership, especially Catholic social teaching, Franciscan spirituality, stewardship ethics, and environmental justice.

My research agenda investigates the extension of stewardship and sustainability ethics emerging at the intersection of scientific institutions and environmental policy. I use interdisciplinary social science methodologies, especially tools from Science & Technology Studies. My dissertation examined the interplay of science and policy in the extension of agroecological strategies and practices in California. At present the primary thrust of my research examines the current status and future potential of biological control of arthropod pests in California agriculture, although I am expanding this research to an international scale. As a Franciscan Friar, I am collaborating with a broader effort to retrieve the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition, and I research the emergence of stewardship and sustainability ethics in religious thought and practice.