Biography

Climate change is the defining issue of my generation. Mountains (our natural water towers) are sentinels in how impacts from climate change are felt. As an early career global and regional climate modeler, I have a keen interest in understanding how mountainous water cycle processes are influenced by climate change, how those changes might influence water resource management, and how the scientific community might better help water managers preemptively adapt to these changes. My focus is primarily on the mountains of the western U.S. across long-term (hydroclimate) and short-term (hydrometeorological extremes) timescales. To date, I’ve published dozens of peer-reviewed studies related to the aforementioned topics with several featured in the U.S. National and California Climate Assessments, Public Policy Institute of California report on “Managing Drought in a Changing Climate”, REI/POW winter sports industry report on “The Economic Contributions of Winter Sports in a Changing Climate”, and my research has been featured in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, LA Times, National Geographic, The Economist and other local, regional, and national news outlets. To do this research, I am funded by three U.S. Department of Energy projects, HyperFACETS (focused on science-stakeholder interactions to increase the accessibility and usability of hydroclimate information), CASCADE (focused on understanding the nature and predictability of hydrometeorological extremes) and SAIL (focused on observing the full mountainous water budget for understanding and advancing climate model development). Specifically, in these projects, I aim to explore the historical behavior and projected trends in total and extreme precipitation (e.g., atmospheric rivers), elevation dependence of precipitation and temperature (e.g., elevation-dependent warming), the ebb and flow of seasonal snowpack dynamics, the boon and bane of the spring freshet, the dissemination of more decision-relevant climate information (e.g., use-inspired evaluation), and utilize and, in a small way, advance the development of cutting-edge climate modeling methods (e.g., variable-resolution global climate models).

Outside of work hours, I enjoy hiking, backpacking, bouldering, keeping up with my Weimaraner, Luna, playing/watching sports of all kinds, and nature photography.