Mission Statement
Driven by the urgent need for resilient climate solutions, my work focuses on the intersection of community sustainability, agricultural systems, and environmental policy. By evaluating emerging frameworks like agrivoltaics, I strive to generate evidence-based research that empowers local communities, balances land-use priorities, and fosters equitable renewable energy transitions.
Key Values
Sustainability
I’m dedicated to finding solutions that will work today and tomorrow.
Community
I seek to become a supportive member of the communities where I conduct my research, not simply a scientist extracting data from a study area.
Collaboration
I always seek to work with members of the community where I conduct my research, partner with relevant experts, and uplift junior researchers.
Midwest Nice
I was born and raised to always show kindness, hospitality, and a willingness to help others, and I bring these attitudes to my work.
Quality
I strive to ensure each of my research outputs is backed by sound theoretical and methodological frameworks.
Featured Recent Publication
Abstract
As efforts to develop solar energy increase across the US, so does local opposition in rural communities where residents view solar energy as incompatible with local landscapes and identities. Recognizing the growing public opposition to solar energy resulting from landscape conflicts, many scholars have recommended the adoption of agrivoltaics. This co-utilization practice allows for agricultural and solar energy production to take place on the same plot of land as a solution to improve public support for solar energy development. This study uses landscape ideologies of the Western United States to examine how solar energy fits into changing Western landscapes and investigates whether agrivoltaics can be used as a tool to better align solar energy development with local landscapes. The study focuses on Pinal County, Arizona, a historically rural agricultural community simultaneously experiencing exurbanization, a decline in agricultural production, and an increase in proposed utility-scale solar energy projects. Using semi-structured interviews with farmers, government officials, and local business interests in combination with participant observation of local meetings about solar energy development, we find that a divergence in landscape ideologies between farmers and government officials in Pinal County significantly shapes opposition to solar energy. Agrivoltaics is perceived positively by government officials as a solution to public opposition toward solar energy development, however, farmers’ insufficient knowledge about agrivoltaics and a lack of current interest by solar developers to engage in agrivoltaic practices present critical barriers to the use of agrivoltaics as a land-use solution in Pinal County. We conclude with recommendations for increasing farmer participation in agrivoltaic policy and project development.