Current Projects
My research program centers around one core question: How do people engage with and communicate about emerging environmental risks?
I explore this by looking at what I call the ‘3i’s’— individuals, information sources, and institutions.
INDIVIDUALS: How do individuals understand and form judgments about science?
Risk perception, science communication, and public understanding of battery usage and storage
This NSF-funded work is part of UO’s Center for Interfacial Ionics. It aims to bridge the gap between how scientists communicate about batteries and how people think about and use them.
This work is published in Energy Research and Social Science.
Exploring how proximity to environmental hazards impacts perceptions of injustice
This project uncovers how maps of environmental hazards and proximity to these hazards affect understanding of environmental inequities and motivate adopting actions to prevent exposures.
This work is in preparation.
INFORMATION SOURCES: How can media and information sources deepen or dampen these judgments?
Effects of Solutions Journalism Stories on Climate Change Behavioral Intentions
This study aimed to contribute to understanding the relationships among collective efficacy, solutions journalism news narratives, and behavioral outcomes in climate communications.
This work is published in Environment and Behavior.
Living with Risk: Environmental Pollution, Risk Information Seeking, & Environmental Justice
This work is centered around how differences in knowledge, experience, and capacity shape whether people seek out information about pollution in their own communities and how information becomes an important yet often overlooked part of environmental inequality and responses to hazards.
This work is in preparation.
INSTITUTIONS: How can institutions, like public health agencies, harness various risk and science communication strategies to bridge those divides?
Clearing the Air: Evaluating Institutions’ Social Media Health Messaging on Wildfire and Smoke Risks in the US Pacific Northwest
This study aimed to: [1] analyze temporal Tweeting patterns in relation to potential wildfire smoke exposure in Washington and Oregon, and; [2] evaluate and compare institutions’ use of three best practices for communicating on social media. We developed practical recommendations for public health practitioners and researchers communicating about wildfire smoke risks on social media.
This work is published in BMC Public Health.
Breaking Environmental Journalistic Conventions on TikTok: How can the field of journalism learn from optimistic climate content creators?
This research project brings together memetic communication literature, solutions journalism, and classical theories of risk communication to assess how positive environmental news is circulated in digital spaces. By assessing how hope and future-oriented thinking can build resilience and a climate-just world, this work reimagines the role of journalism and culminates with a climate-content playbook for practitioners.
This work is in preparation.