1. What do you study related to biodiversity (what are your research questions, what organisms do you work on)?
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 I study people living together in small rural communities in South America, and the research question I have is simply this: What is the best method for providing these people (rural, primarily uneducated, yet living closest to areas of highest biodiversity in the neo-tropics, and having control over those resources) with information relating to biodiversity and sustainable use of natural resources that can help them lead better lives and also protect the environment?
This is information that will help them make informed decisions about whether to participate in conservation and education programs that can help them to change specific behaviors and practices impacting biodiversity. The other part of this equation is where the information comes from: it's a blending of the communities' own knowledge and that of scientists who have done research in that area.
I study people (actually, the social systems in which they live) in order to better understand how to communicate with them (but also to help them communicate with us). But more than that, we also are helping the people in these rural, poor communities to fully participate as "stakeholders" in conservation, with communication and better access to information being the key.
However, it is not just about us telling people there what to do—participatory communication implies that we are helping people in rural areas to document their own knowledge and experiences as well, and then helping them to reproduce it in some kind of visual media so that it can be used within their own community or shared with others. This process of "local knowledge documentation" represents more than one-half of the total work that I do in my job.
(Oh yeah, I'm not a biologist, I'm a social scientist.)
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2. How do you study biodiversity (for example, what technological tools and methodologies do you use in your research)?
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The methodology in our conservation communication work is called "participatory communication," which means we try to include local people as much as possible in the communication process—so that their "local knowledge" (also known as "indigenous knowledge") and experiences help to inform the types of educational materials that we produce.
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3. Where do you study biodiversity?
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The lowland tropics of South American—Bolivia, Peru. and Ecuador. I also only focus on adults, people living in small rural villages. Although I work in an area of education, I don’t do “environmental education.” I’m specifically concerned with providing people with technical knowledge/improved practices or information linked to behavioral change.
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4. How might your research have implications for biological conservation?
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 People can't make informed decisions about natural resource use and management without the right kind of information getting to them (and in a form that they can understand). Real conservation will never take place until local people take responsibility for the work themselves, the types of communication programs I do help them to learn how to do that.
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5. How did you become interested in science? What made you want to be a scientist, and how did you get to The Field Museum?
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I grew up on a farm in Northwestern Illinois, and my father was an agronomist and extension agent for the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. From an early age I saw first-hand how people receive information about agriculture within a rural social system (group meetings, field days in farmers' fields, use of farmer test plots; fairs and small table-top exhibits, in addition to other extension media and print materials).
My background obviously influenced me in terms of a career choice, so I studied extension methodology, anthropology, and rural sociology in both undergraduate and graduate school. I also combined this academic interest with art—I studied graphic design and painting, but always have considered art useful only in a very applied sense—visual communication in order to provide science information for rural people who better understand pictures and images, rather than printed text.
I specialized in teaching farmers about soil conservation and worked in that area for a time in Peru for USAID; later I started working at the Field Museum because I was interested in learning how to build exhibits, plus I just wanted to take a break from graduate school, have some fun and earn some money. I ended up staying at the museum and never finished my Ph.D. work in rural sociology, and never will.
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6. Describe important collaborations for your scientific endeavors (describe your work with other researchers, organizations, or scientific groups, local or indigenous peoples, etc.)
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The manner in which we work implies that a great deal of training must take place. Our collaborating institutions and groups are really responsible for the actual work in those countries where we are working, we only serve as trainers and technical advisors. Our success will only be measured in how well we are able to help people in other countries to take on this work for themselves.
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