Teaching
I teach innovative interdisciplinary courses about the environment, cities, journalism, and science communication. Through lectures, discussion, in-class activities, and project-based learning, students engage multiple perspectives to understand the environment. In the Boston College Core Curriculum, I lead active learning laboratories that teach skills such as data literacy, spatial analysis, case study research, science communication, and creative expression. Below are descriptions of recent courses.
Interpreting and Communicating Environmental Information
Smith College, Spring 2026 (seminar)
This course focuses on the interpretation and communication of environmental issues and solutions from multi- and interdisciplinary perspectives. Students develop the ability to read, interpret, and critique environmental research from a variety of disciplines; to consider the needs and motivation of their audience; to develop evidence-based arguments tailored to a particular audience; and to articulate those arguments clearly and concisely.This course is designed to build foundational knowledge of environmental communication and its role in the relationship between humans and their environment, while also aiming to improve communication skills to effect change in the world.
The Just City: Understanding Environmental Problems and Solutions
Boston College, Fall 2022 and Spring 2025 (Seminar)
The Just City teaches about urban environmental justice by first thinking about cities as environments linked to the natural world. Students learn how different disciplines have described and studied these links. In the second iteration of the course, I focused on teaching systems thinking in understanding environmental problems, solutions, and their impacts on environmental justice. Through case studies of urban environmental problems, we learned to analyze ecological, social, and infrastructural relationships. Students create ArcGIS Story Maps about environmental issues in neighborhoods of Boston.
Climate Change and the Corporation
Boston College, Fall 2024 (Laboratory)
This active learning laboratory taught in conjunction with lectures by Boston College faculty members focused on exploring the role of public corporations in climate change and how they are mitigating and adapting to it. Active learning sessions focused on building data literacy, exploring climate solutions, investigating corporate sustainability reporting and risk data, and working as groups to create a presentations to a Board of Directors about real-world corporations’ climate risks.
Understanding and Protecting Our Oceans in the Wake of Global Change
Boston College, Spring 2022 and 2023 (Laboratory)
This active learning laboratory taught in conjunction with lectures by Boston College faculty members engaged students in topics related to ocean science, management, and justice. Our labs focused on data literacy, case study analysis, concept mapping, science communication, and urban waterfront exploration.
Environmental Journalism: Science, Society, Solutions
Boston College, Spring 2024 (Seminar)
This course focuses on both practical skills in covering the environment and critical perspectives on environmental journalism. Students choose a topic to cover from multiple angles. We focus on communicating science; exploring social, economic, legal, and justice aspects of environmental issues; and evaluating and reporting on solutions without falling prey to hype.
Crisis and Storytelling in the Age of Climate Change
Boston College, Fall 2023 (Laboratory)
This active learning laboratory taught in conjunction with lectures by Boston College faculty members focused on social science and creative approaches to understanding climate change science and environmental justice, including an urban tree lab, a hands-on ice core lab, and op-ed writing, culminating in a series of scaffolded sessions helping students develop and produce podcasts on local climate issues.