About Me
I am a biological anthropologist and behavioral ecologist who studies the ecological, social, and physiological influences on the behavioral, reproductive, and communication strategies of wild primates. Spanning ecology, bioacoustics, anthropology, and conservation, my collaborative research program is rooted in a deep interest in understanding primates' responses to social-ecological change. I am deeply passionate about developing education, training, and outreach programs with and for my local partners, both on university campuses as well as in the communities who rely on the forests where wild primates live. Since 2005, I have lived and worked with indigenous communities in Indonesia and always strive to cultivate meaningful roles for local people to participate in our research programs, from designing and planning the work, collecting and analyzing the data, and sharing the results.
With my research teams, I have compiled multi-year behavior, ranging, and sound-recording datasets for simakobu (Simias concolor), saddleback tamarins (Leontocebus weddelli), and Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) as well as soundscape recordings of dipterocarp, peat-swamp, mangrove, and heath forests in Borneo. Students and early career researchers with an interest in collaborating on any of these research topics, please get in touch!
At the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, I am leading a team of natural and social scientists – in collaboration with local community partners – to conduct social-ecological research across Indonesia's planned new capital city location in Borneo. We seek to document the wide-ranging impacts on forests, communities, and biodiversity by combining bioacoustics and ethnographic research approaches with community-led bio-cultural monitoring. In parallel, I have an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Frank van Veen at the University of Exeter, the Borneo Nature Foundation, and Mariaty Ayudia Niun at Universitas Muhammadiyah Palangkaraya in the Mungku Baru Education Forest in Central Kalimantan. Our work monitors wild primates' responses to anthropogenic change to support data-driven conservation strategies for the Rungan landscape.
My research in Indonesia began in 2005, when I initiated a multi-year study of male-male competition in the critically endangered simakobu (Simias concolor), an odd-nosed monkey endemic to the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia. From 2013-2016, I led postdoctoral research on the behavior and ecology of wild Bornean orangutans at the Tuanan Orangutan Research Project in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. In parallel with my orangutan research in Borneo, Dr. Leila Porter and I co-directed a study of cooperative infant care in wild saddleback tamarins in Bolivia in 2013-2014. In 2015, with Dr. Erin Vogel, I co-founded the non-profit organization CORE Borneo to support orangutan conservation.
I am a former fellow of the Fulbright Program, Cornell Engaged Faculty, British Academy, American Institute for Indonesian Studies, and American Association of University Women.
With my research teams, I have compiled multi-year behavior, ranging, and sound-recording datasets for simakobu (Simias concolor), saddleback tamarins (Leontocebus weddelli), and Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) as well as soundscape recordings of dipterocarp, peat-swamp, mangrove, and heath forests in Borneo. Students and early career researchers with an interest in collaborating on any of these research topics, please get in touch!
At the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, I am leading a team of natural and social scientists – in collaboration with local community partners – to conduct social-ecological research across Indonesia's planned new capital city location in Borneo. We seek to document the wide-ranging impacts on forests, communities, and biodiversity by combining bioacoustics and ethnographic research approaches with community-led bio-cultural monitoring. In parallel, I have an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Frank van Veen at the University of Exeter, the Borneo Nature Foundation, and Mariaty Ayudia Niun at Universitas Muhammadiyah Palangkaraya in the Mungku Baru Education Forest in Central Kalimantan. Our work monitors wild primates' responses to anthropogenic change to support data-driven conservation strategies for the Rungan landscape.
My research in Indonesia began in 2005, when I initiated a multi-year study of male-male competition in the critically endangered simakobu (Simias concolor), an odd-nosed monkey endemic to the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia. From 2013-2016, I led postdoctoral research on the behavior and ecology of wild Bornean orangutans at the Tuanan Orangutan Research Project in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. In parallel with my orangutan research in Borneo, Dr. Leila Porter and I co-directed a study of cooperative infant care in wild saddleback tamarins in Bolivia in 2013-2014. In 2015, with Dr. Erin Vogel, I co-founded the non-profit organization CORE Borneo to support orangutan conservation.
I am a former fellow of the Fulbright Program, Cornell Engaged Faculty, British Academy, American Institute for Indonesian Studies, and American Association of University Women.
