I currently run several wildlife research programs for the Department of Wildlife Management at the North Slope Borough (NSB) - the local government for a region that spans Alaska's North Slope (~ 89,000 square miles) along the coasts of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.  This region is primarily inhabited by the Iñupiat people, who rely upon marine mammals as a vitally important component of their social fabric and subsistence traditions and on whose land I live and work.  Alaska Native hunters are experts in wildlife ecology and are essential partners for any efforts to conserve Arctic wildlife and habitat.  This research would be impossible without the skills and knowledge (both new and old) that local hunters have graciously shared with me over the years.  In addition to collaborating with local hunters and Indigenous Knowledge (IK) experts, I have cultivated a number of strategic partnerships with state, federal, non-governmental, and academic institutions to pull together complementary skill-sets that maximize the information value of the data that we collect from species that are notoriously difficult to study.  Drawing from spatial ecology, physiology, population dynamics, and IK, my research focuses on the ecology of ice seals (ringed, bearded, and spotted), polar bears, and bowhead whales.  Ultimately, my goal is to help synthesize a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of why animals do what they do, what resources they utilize, and how best to conserve and sustainably manage wildlife and the habitat they require.  These are important lessons that have great value in whichever system one seeks to understand.

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The programs that I oversee are all based in Utqiagvik, Alaska - the largest village in the NSB, and the northernmost city in the US (71.3° N / 156.8° W).  Working in both the summer and the winter, I am involved in such activities as the capture and instrumentation of wild ice seals, non-invasive genetic monitoring methods for polar bears (and potentially other species), and abundance estimation of both bowhead whales and polar bears.  Given the wealth of largely untapped knowledge held by local hunters, I am also involved with documenting Indigenous Knowledge and integrating it with Western Science to address questions that concern the conservation and management of marine mammals in an ever-changing Arctic. 

 

Finally, I am privileged to participate in a number of organizations that focus on policy as related to the conservation and management of marine mammals.  In particular, I participate as a scientific advisor to the following entities:  the Inuvialuit-Iñupiat Polar Bear Commission, the Polar Bear Technical Committee (Canada), the US Endangered Species Act (ESA) polar bear recovery and implementation teams, the US-Russia Bilateral Polar Bear Agreement, and the IUCN Range States Polar Bear Conflict Working Group.  I also serve as the executive manager of the Ice Seal Committee - the federally recognized co-management partner for ice seals in the USA (AK).  As a researcher that lives in an Arctic community, I am able to bring "real world" pragmatic insights to what are often high-level international policy debates.