My research program has coalesced around the theme of informing environmental policy and strategy. This entails endangered species management, conservation investment, and environmental risk assessment. Much of my research entails analyzing data collected by others, building databases from a variety of public sources and analyzing these data, or critically evaluating alternative recommendations for environmental action. I also maintain a set of field studies concerning the endangered parasitic plant, Cordylanthus rigidus ssp. littoralis.

In my teaching, I try to include in every course, regardless of level, special exercises that bring science to bear on major societal policy debates. These projects typically involve pulling together data from various web-based databases and analyzing the data in novel ways. Helping students to apply scientific thinking and quantitative skills to issues of societal relevance has become a major theme of my teaching.