Who we are

Dr. Kelly Biedenweg has a Ph.D. in the human dimensions of natural resource management. She currently works primarily in the Puget Sound and Oregon looking at the link between ecosystem services and human values and wellbeing. Prior, she spent about ten years in Latin America researching community forest management in the Bolivian Amazon and environmental leadership development in Honduras. Dr. Biedenweg has a B.S. in marine ecology and an M.S. in conservation biology. In her spare time, Dr. Biedenweg likes to make functional pottery and admires those with the patience for sculpting.
Contact: kelly.biedenweg "at" oregonstate "dot" edu

Postdocs

Dr. David J. Trimbach is a community-engaged, place-based, and policy-driven scholar with a Ph.D. in human geography. Dr. Trimbach’s research interests include: community development, citizenship/engagement, public policy, identity, and collaborative governance. Dr. Trimbach has conducted research and evaluation on a diverse array of projects, including an Oregon Fellowship project focused on civic capacity, community-based natural resource management (Willamette Falls), and public-private nonprofit partnerships in Oregon. His experience in higher education, public service, and nonprofit sector illustrate his motivation to understand and create more equitable and inclusive communities. Dr. Trimbach has a B.A. in sociology and M.U.S. in community development. Outside of research, Dr. Trimbach enjoys volunteering, cycling, and traveling.

Graduate Students

Eric Wade (PhD student) is originally from Belize in Central America. He completed a BS in Marine Biology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2013. Before coming to OSU, Eric was employed as a Program Officer at Belize’s Department of Fisheries where he worked in marine protected areas management, community outreach and capacity building as well as project management under externally funded projects. Eric’s interests lie in better understanding the social dynamics of fisheries management in an effort to empower communities and strengthen fisheries policy and governance through the inclusion of social indicators. At OSU, Eric’s thesis will focus on furthering the understanding of Belize’s fisheries management framework by actively working with fishermen and community members to measure their knowledge of the framework using cognitive mapping. The results of the thesis are hope to inform fisheries policy legislation in Belize. During, his free time, Eric enjoys discovering new hiking trails and scuba diving.

Jackie Delie (MS student) grew up in Seattle, Washington where she developed a passion for wildlife. Her undergraduate years abroad at Franklin University Switzerland and in Carins, Australia solidified her interest in interdisciplinary studies, merging wildlife ecology and community/ cultural values into conservation management. Internship positions with organizations such as Save the Elephants and The Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program led her to pursue research that explorers the spatial overlap between people’s wildland-urban interface (WUI) values and the spatial distribution of black bears in the Pacific Northwest. By identifying which human values are most in conflict community-sensitive wildlife, management plans can be implemented and conflict-mitigation techniques can be applied. Jackie enjoys immersing herself in other cultures and would never turn down the opportunity to dance. Jackie’s research interests include integrating indigenous knowledge into wildlife management, analyzing strategies of protected areas, and studying human attitudes, values and behaviors towards wildlife.

Brittany King (PhD student) was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she developed an interest and love for marine science. She earned a BS from Hampton University in Marine and Environmental Science in 2009 and a MESM in Environmental Science and Management from UC Santa Barbara in 2012. Before deciding to attend OSU, Brittany worked as a community organizer on social and environmental justice issues affecting disadvantaged communities throughout the SF Bay Area. Brittany’s primary research interests lie in diversity, equity and inclusion in marine and fisheries sciences. She is interested in exploring the barriers and opportunities for the inclusion and participation of African Americans, and communities of color. She is also interested in exploring ways to utilize informal science education and citizen science programs to reduce the communication gap between science, policy, and underrepresented communities. In her spare time, Brittany enjoys baking and crafting.

Whitney Fleming (PhD student) is interested in environmental policy and science issues, with a special intrigue for the interaction between the two. Her previous studies have focused on energy policy, perceptions of climate change, and ecosystem management. She has a BS in Environmental Science from Western Washington University and a Masters of Public Affairs and Environmental Policy from the University of Washington. She has spent a fair amount of time abroad, including studying the mountain ecosystems of Nepal, working with the Cheetah Conservation Fund of Namibia, and traveling the nine months prior to starting at OSU. Whitney appreciates taking a long trail ride on her horse, and eats a fair amount of soup.

Brian Erickson (PhD student) grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He holds a BA in Biology from Lewis & Clark College (Portland, OR), a MS in Teaching (Biology, grades 7-12) from Fordham University (New York, NY), and a MS in Marine Resource Management from Oregon State University (Corvallis, OR). Brian fell in love with the ocean while working as a field technician in St. Croix, Panama, and the Northwest Hawaiian islands, and first began considering the complexity of sociocultural dynamics while studying abroad in Kenya and Tanzania. Before returning to OSU, Brian explored multiple career options in education (classroom teacher, informal/marine educator, education consultant) and research biology. Brian’s master’s work at OSU focused on exploring a commonly held assumption – that knowledge of environmental problems leads to action to fix those problems – through the lens of a high school ocean acidification curriculum. During the project, he reviewed 90 available teaching resources, created a new curriculum that expanded on the impacts and ways to address ocean acidification, and ran an experiment examining the effects of addressing ways to reduce ocean acidification on student knowledge and attitudes (details available on his website: http://brianderickson.weebly.com/). For his PhD work, Brian will be collaborating with the SMART Seas Africa Programme(smartseas.org) to examine social aspects of marine conservation in East Africa. Brian can often be found outside, whitewater kayaking, hiking, and gardening. He also eats more quesadillas than should be humanly possible.

Alumni

Dr. Kayla Cranston (Postdoc 2016-2017) studies and creates tools to evaluate motivation for long-term engagement in environmental projects from a psychological perspective.

Kerrick Robinson (MS 2018) focused his thesis on determining the factors that influence stakeholder preferences for salmon habitat management in the Quinault Indian Nation. Kerrick is currently a Social Scientist with North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.