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With 27 years of experience at the Evergreen State College, I am a skilled interdisciplinary educator. As a member of the faculty since 1996, I teach American environmental history, botany, taxonomy, historical ecology, and cultural history of plants in teams of faculty and solo at the undergraduate and graduate level. I have cotaught with twenty-four different colleagues over 27 years, including an American historian, art historian, European historian, political economist, print-maker, geographer, and historian of science. I mentor undergraduate and graduate-level researchers. And, I am the Director of the Center for Biodiversity Studies (formerly the Evergreen Natural History Museum) and Vascular Plant Herbarium (EVE) Curator.
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RECENT PROGRAMS TAUGHT AT EVERGREEN
Most of the following full-time, interdisciplinary, undergraduate programs were worth 16 credit. The fall 2021 class was a 4 credit graduate-level offering.
American Environmental History, Fall 2021 (online). Students learned to use case studies of cash crops and specific regions to explore the complex and shifting relationship between the environment and various peoples living on the lands currently known as the United States. Students also considered contemporary issues in a historical context, e.g. Indigenous efforts to address the impacts of white settlement on food sovereignty and ecosystem health. The program served as an elective in the Master in Environmental Studies curriculum. Taught solo.
Botany: Plants and People, Winter 2016, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Winter 2020, Winter 2021 (online), Winter 2022 and 2023 (hybrid). An integration of introductory plant biology, cultural history of plants, and expository writing. Students consider how gender, race, and class influence our relations with plants. This foundational program is a prerequisite for my upper-division programs Field Plant Taxonomy and Picturing Plants. Taught solo usually or with others, including Lalita Calabria.
European Ethnobotany in Historical Context, Spring 2019.
A general education, full-immersion program that incorporated cultural history of plants, gender studies, medicinal botany, and European history. Taught with French historian Stacey Davis.
European Ethnobotany and Art, Winter 2017.
A general education, full-immersion program that incorporated cultural history of plants, medicinal botany, European art history, gender studies, the witch hunts, and expository writing. Taught with art historian Ann Storey.
Field Plant Taxonomy and Biodiversity Conservation, Spring 2021 (online) and Spring 2023.
An upper division, junior-senior program focused on field plant taxonomy and ecological restoration with a focus on local prairies, oak woodlands, and wetlands as case studies. We examined a variety of case studies from the Pacific Northwest and California, including some that involved partnerships with Indigenous people and integrated traditional ecological knowledge. Taught with botanist Lalita Calabria.
Food Systems, Human Health, and the Environment, Fall 2022 (hybrid).
Designed for first-year students and sophomores as an interdisciplinary introductory program that integrates food studies, social movements, nutrition, and environmental justice. Taught with sociologist Prita Lal.
Global Studies: Plants and Empire, Fall 2020 (online).
Coordinated studies of economic botany, feminist economics, and cultural history of plants in the context of global capitalism. Designed for sophomores to seniors as a foundational program with upper division options. Taught with political economist Savvina Chowdhury.
Intersectional Ecofeminism, Fall 2023 (online undergraduate course and in-person graduate course)
A 4-credit graduate-level elective course for the Master in Environmental Studies program and an 8-credit undergraduate program that incorporates gender, queer, and women’s studies and a literature review.
Picturing Plants, Spring 2020 (online), Spring 2022 (hybrid). An upper division program focused on field plant taxonomy, botanical illustration, and restoration ecology. We examined local prairie-oak mosaics and wetlands as case studies which involved considering how restoration of cultural landscapes can be informed by traditional ecological knowledge. Taught solo.
The Nature and Culture of Natural History, Fall 2017-Winter 2018.
A general education, full-immersion program that incorporated cultural history of plants, field botany, natural history, history of science, gender studies, and expository writing. Taught with historian of science Tamara Caulkins.
Winter Twig ID, Winter 2024
A 4-credit undergraduate-level course focused on learning to sight recognize thirty common native Pacific Northwest trees and shrubs in dormancy. Students also learned to key using twig morphological features.
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EDUCATION
In addition to decades of professional experience, I earned the following degrees:
Ph.D. Ecology, University of California, Davis, December 1996. Dissertation: Wild Restoration: Building Multicultural Partnership in the Sinkyone Wilderness.
M.S. Botany, University of California, Davis, March 1989.
B.A. Botany, University of California, Berkeley, honors student, June 1981.
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CONTINUING EDUCATION
Plant Humanities Virtual Faculty Residency, June 2023. Dumbarton Oaks.
Plant Food Culinary Arts Certificate, January 2023. Living Foods Academy.
Online Teaching Certificate (including an Online Lab Mastery Series), July 2022. Online Learning Consortium.
Dispute Resolution Certificate, July 2020. Dispute Resolution Center of Thurston County. Olympia, Washington.