About Michael

I’m an interdisciplinary scientist dedicated to environmental sustainability and social justice, particularly in Amazonia. My professional and academic work focus on Indigenous peoples’ rights, natural resource management, and biocultural conservation. I’ve worked across academia, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector to support Indigenous stewardship and equitable conservation. As a Program Fellow with the Andes-Amazon Initiative at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, I developed grants advancing land tenure and conservation across five Amazonian countries and developed monitoring systems to guide strategic decision-making. At Princeton University’s High Meadows Environmental Institute, I partnered with Cofán, Siekopai, and Siona communities to research Indigenous governance and ecological resilience. Earlier in my career, I supported community-based conservation in Melanesia through my work at the American Museum of Natural History’s Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.

Website Google Scholar Profile

Education

PhD, Interdisciplinary Ecology - University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, 2020

BA, Sustainable Development - University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA, 2008

Awards, Honors, Grants

  • Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation ($900,000) "Collaborative Development of Tools for Conservation Area Tracking and Indigenous Stewardship Assessment in Ecuador", 2025-2027
  • National Science Foundation: DISES Program ($998,682) “Resilient Socio-Environmental Systems: Indigenous Territories in the Face of Change”, 2021-2025
  • National Science Foundation: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship ($148,000) “Biocultural Heritage and Social-Ecological Resilience”, 2021-2023

Memberships

  • World Commission on Protected Areas
  • Society for Conservation Biology