How do people understand risk, make decisions under uncertainty, and work together to protect the health of people, animals, and ecosystems?
Environmental health challenges rarely begin as communication problems.
They begin as complex systems problems.
Emerging infectious diseases, wildfire, food insecurity, water quality, climate hazards, invasive species, and environmental contamination all emerge through interactions among ecological, technological, organizational, and human systems. Communication determines whether those interactions lead to confusion or understanding, fragmentation or coordination, fear or informed action.
My research examines how strategic communication can help individuals, organizations, and communities navigate environmental uncertainty, build trust, and translate scientific knowledge into meaningful action.
Rather than asking only how information should be communicated, I ask how communication can improve the ability of complex systems to adapt.
A Design Ecology Perspective
Environmental health is often discussed as a scientific challenge.
Communication is often discussed as a messaging challenge.
In reality, both are part of the same system.
Scientific discoveries have little impact if they cannot be understood, trusted, or incorporated into everyday decisions. Likewise, effective communication cannot compensate for institutions, technologies, or policies that undermine trust or make action unnecessarily difficult.
From a Design Ecology perspective, communication is one of the mechanisms through which ecological systems and human systems become connected.
Every warning, interface, policy, educational program, and community partnership changes how people perceive risk and how they respond to it.
The goal is not simply to inform.
The goal is to create the conditions under which people can make better decisions together.
Research Themes
My work explores questions such as:
- How do people interpret environmental and public health risks?
- What factors influence trust in scientific and institutional communication?
- How can communication improve community preparedness before disasters occur?
- How do designed environments influence disease transmission and human behavior?
- What role does communication play in One Health initiatives?
- How can interdisciplinary teams communicate across professional boundaries?
- How do organizations coordinate information during periods of uncertainty?
- How can communication strengthen adaptive capacity instead of simply increasing awareness?
These questions draw upon strategic communication, environmental communication, health communication, systems thinking, One Health, design research, and human-computer interaction.
One Health and Environmental Health
A significant focus of my research examines the interconnected health of people, animals, and ecosystems through a One Health perspective.
My doctoral research explored how the design of everyday tools and environments influences opportunities for pathogen transmission within backyard poultry systems. Rather than focusing solely on biological processes, I investigated how human behavior, equipment design, environmental conditions, and communication interact to create or reduce health risks.
This work reinforced an important lesson that continues to shape my research today:
Many environmental health problems are influenced not only by biology, but by the design of systems that shape everyday decisions.
Understanding those systems opens new opportunities for prevention, education, and resilience.
Why This Matters
Environmental challenges are becoming increasingly interconnected.
A severe storm can disrupt healthcare systems.
A wildfire can affect air quality hundreds of miles away.
Food systems influence public health, economic resilience, and environmental sustainability simultaneously.
These challenges cannot be solved through scientific discovery alone.
They require people and organizations to coordinate across disciplines, sectors, and communities.
Communication provides the connective tissue that enables that coordination.
When designed thoughtfully, communication helps translate complex evidence into practical decisions, strengthens trust among stakeholders, and improves society’s ability to adapt under changing conditions.
Current Areas of Inquiry
My current work spans several interconnected areas, including:
- Environmental communication
- Risk and crisis communication
- One Health
- Community resilience
- Food systems and agricultural communication
- Environmental health
- Research translation
- Science communication
- Stakeholder engagement
- Decision support under uncertainty
Collectively, these efforts contribute to a broader Design Ecology framework that examines how communication influences adaptation across complex human and ecological systems.
Looking Forward
The environmental challenges of the twenty-first century are increasingly characterized by uncertainty, interdependence, and rapid change.
Meeting those challenges requires more than better science.
It requires better communication between scientists and communities, between institutions and stakeholders, and across the many systems that shape environmental health.
My work seeks to understand how communication can help societies navigate complexity, reduce risk, and build healthier, more resilient futures.
Ultimately, I believe environmental health communication is not simply about explaining science.
It is about helping people, organizations, and communities make better decisions together.