Community Partnerships & CollaborationS
Community partners on Maui, Hawaiʻi
I work with the Native Hawaiian community group, Polanui Hiu and the global non-profit The Nature Conservancy, Hawaiʻi on our project investigating reef perceptions and conservation behavior in coral reef environments on the island of Maui, Hawaiʻi. Through a community-engaged process - from the development of the research questions, to data collection, to presenting and sharing findings - this project equally shares the rights and responsibilities of the research with local and Native Hawaiian community partners.
Photo: Maui Digital Images
Local and Tribal collaborators in Louisiana
I partner with the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe (PACIT) and researchers at Louisiana Sea Grant on a study funded by the Environmental Protection Agency examining Tribal coastal resilience and adaptation to climate change.
Community air quality advocates in California
In our study on wildfire smoke protective-health and adaptation behavior, we worked with the Central California Environmental Justice Network (CCEJN) and the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition in California’s Central Valley. These community organizations provided assistance with interview participant recruitment and opportunities to share study findings with the community.
“For it is not simply the case…that relationships to places are lived exclusively or predominantly in contemplative moments of social isolation. On the contrary, relationships to places are lived most often in the company of other people, and it is on these communal occasions—when places are sensed together—that native views of the physical world become accessible to strangers.”