Hometown:

Howell, Michigan (Home); East Lansing, MI (Office)

About Me:

My primary job is husband and father of two lovely children. In my spare time I play the part of "Associate Director and Senior Research Scientist" at the Institute for Food and Agricultural Standards (IFAS) at Michigan State University. In this role I hold a Ph.D. and MA in Applied Anthropology, both from the University of South Florida, and a BA in Anthropology from Michigan State. I can be seen assisting with numerous activities at IFAS, including grant writing, research, project management, and graduate course development and teaching. My primary research interests are in the participatory dimensions of environmental management and agrifood standards development and implementation, and particularly ethnographic methodological applications to promote more equitable social access in those processes. I have managed numerous social research projects, authored 25 or so scientific publications and technical reports, and given roughly 50 presentations to various professional and scientific societies and associations. I am a Fellow of the SfAA, a founding member of the Risk Assessment and Policy Association, and an occassional member of the American Anthropological Association and the International Associations for Public Participation and Impact Assessment, respectively. I received the EPA/SfAA Environmental Anthropology Fellowship in 1999, and served as the inaugural Fellow to the Great Lakes Commission Fellowship Program between 1999 and 2001. I have conducted applied research in various North American institutional settings, including academic, private, and public sector entities ranging from local to international jurisdictions. In the current scene, I am examining the social and ethical dimensions of agrifood nanotechnologies, including the development of hybrid extension/ethnographic models for public participation in agrifood nanotech policy development. In that capacity, I also serve on the Nanotechnology Standards Panel and Steering Committees of the American National Standards Institute, wherein IFAS' Agrifood Nanotechnology Troupe examines social access issues in nanotechnology standards development processes, including their strategic implications and distributive consequences. Secretly, though, I long for reflexive intermission (with pay, of course) and the freedom to write about it. Then I return home to reality each day around 6:00 p.m., only to wash, rinse, and repeat the following morning.

Website:

https://ifas.msu.edu/

Area(s) of Training

applied anthropology, other

Area(s) of Expertise

Public Participation; Risk Perception Mapping; Environmental Management; Food & Agricultural Standards, certification; Agrifood Nanotechnology

Most Recent Degree

PhD

Current Area of Employment

Applied Anthropologist, Institute for Food & Agricultural Standards, Michigan State University, US