About Tara

I am a conservation ecologist and educator dedicated to generating the scientific insights and building the social infrastructure required for long-term species and ecosystem resilience. Drawing on fifteen years of experience across government, NGOs, and academia, I focus on equipping communities and policy makers with the research and educational tools they need to succeed. I view conservation as an infinite game where success is measured by the long-term resilience of wildlife, lands, and the communities that steward them. To achieve this, I give equal weight to technical substance, inclusive process, and relationship building to identify the non-intuitive shifts required for lasting conservation impact.

Applied Science and Decision Making

Technical substance provides the baseline for my work. With a PhD in Wildlife Biology from the University of Montana and a Master of Environmental Science from Yale University, I specialize in large mammal ecology and the deep-rooted drivers of human beliefs and behaviors in shared landscapes. Because conservation challenges are fundamentally human-centric, I integrate quantitative ecology with qualitative research and decision science. I apply Conservation Conflict Transformation to address the underlying needs and identities that can stall cooperation, and I use Structured Decision Making and CMP’s Open Standards to help teams navigate complex trade-offs and design logical pathways for impact.

Infrastructure and Tools for Community Agency

To build an inclusive process, I treat education and capacity building as essential infrastructure for community-led work. To me, this means showing up with a toolkit rather than a set of instructions. I focus on co-creation and skill-sharing because the most effective conservation shouldn't depend on a single researcher; it should be built on the collective expertise of the many stakeholders and community participants who sustain the landscape through their own daily stewardship. By working with local partners and communities to strengthen their own technical and organizational skills, I hope to set the stage for work that actually moves the needle.

This approach shifts my main focus from just checking off project activities to making a lasting impact towards a real theory of change. Key goals of my work are to support local agency, to recognize communities as the primary stewards of their own landscapes, and to get them the tools and resources that they need to lead.

Trust and the Anti-Hero

Relationship building, and the trust it requires, is where conservation becomes truly durable. I believe that effective and enduring conservation is always a team sport, never the work of a single “hero.” Every success is built on a network of contributors: field teams on the ground, development staff securing funds, funders offering support, partners sharing local knowledge or getting their hands dirty, caregivers working behind the scenes, and mentors offering experience to learn from. The list goes on.

Building a strong team requires trust, and this isn't built overnight. It’s earned through the slow, steady work of showing up and navigating the messy, real-world challenges together.

My own career is supported by an extensive village of people who help to guide my work and sustain my personal life. By acknowledging this shared reality, and expressing my immense gratitude for my community, I hope to center the relationships and support systems that make our work resilient and our impact truly durable.

Personal Legacy of Stewardship

My commitment to this work is both professional and personal. My great-grandfather was a Sámi reindeer herder in northern Finland, and that family history informs my perspective on the long-term relationship between people and the land. I use scientific methods to uphold those same values of care and resilience in a modern context. I am dedicated to passing this thread forward to help the next generation sustain a landscape that remains abundant and enduring.