RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Red Cross Climate Centre 2023
Junior Researcher
The goal of this project was to provide technical support to the Red Cross Red Crescent (RCRC) National Societies, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and partners to expand the adoption of a Forecast-based Financing (FbF) approach to drought disaster preparedness. The initial geographical scope of this project was focused on Somiliand with expansion into Puntland and broader Somalia. Over the course of this research, my focus centered on examining the historical coping and adaptation mechanisms employed by pastoralist communities in response to drought. In addition to the historical analysis, my responsibilities included the development of a climate-related social impact database for Somalia to better understand the scope and timing of drought impact.
Global Adaptation Mapping Initiative (GAMI) 2020-2021
Coder
GAMI is a project focused on the systematic review of climate change adaptation literature to develop the first global assessment of empirical evidence on adaptation progress. This initiative was developed to inform the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 6th Assessment Report. As a coder, I was tasked with reading and extracting adaptation insights from over 50 documents using an online, customized data extraction platform.
Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4)/ United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2018- 2019 Research Fellow
This research project focused on fragile socio-ecological systems adaptive capacity in the Horn region of East Africa.
The work is based on a historical analysis of holistic system adaptation and applied through an integrated conceptual model approach to address multidimensional system resilience given converging pressures from climate and conflict.
The Consortium for Capacity Building (CCB)/ Institute of Arctic & Alpine Research (INSTAAR) 2018-2019 Assistant Researcher
El Niño Ready Nations is an ongoing project that focuses on the varying conceptualizations of ‘readiness’ when it comes to being prepared on a national level for a climate-, water-, and/or weather-related disaster experienced during a declared El Niño season. I constructed a PR plan that created a media network in 30 countries. This included tiered content creation to address changes in the 2018-2019 El Niño forecast. This campaign was a combined print, online, and social push meant to stress forecasting and monitor regional social responses to content.
Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4)/
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) 2017-2018
Research Fellow
This project was a natural resource management project in the Peruvian Amazon, which focused on strengthening indigenous capacity in conflict resolution and natural resource management. My role was to examine the evolution of academic theory behind conflict-sensitive conservation practices and how this has contributed to current field standards. I furthered this research by identifying the different components of good practices in the field, as supported by academic publications, and how this can differ in actual implementation.
The Consortium for Capacity Building (CCB)/ Institute of Arctic & Alpine Research (INSTAAR) 2015-2016 Research Assistant
For this project, I worked with the Consortium for Capacity Building on a USAID/NOAA grant on how nations can prepare and cope with weather-related disasters to become an El Niño and La Nina Ready nation. My responsibilities included monitoring news outlets in 14+ countries. This monitoring was designed to note any instabilities with a country’s political, social, and economic environments. These instabilities focused primarily on economic fluctuations, disease outbreaks, human migration patterns, political instability, and other secondary impacts of changing climate variability due to naturally occurring ENSO cycles.