Teaching philosophy

Teaching is one of the most direct ways a scientist can impact the world and make it a better place. It provides an opportunity to engage with and shape the lives of students who are preparing to be the leaders and citizens of the next generation. I see teaching and mentoring as an opportunity to create transformative change, one person at a time. Having worked with numerous professors during my PhD and postdoctoral positions, I was fortunate to observe the best elements of their various teaching styles. I will incorporate these elements into my own teaching philosophy, which centers on three main objectives: (i) inspiring students’ curiosity to develop questions about environmental change, (ii) using empirical data—both qualitative and quantitative—to explore these questions, and (iii) fostering an understanding that conceptualizing trade-offs is often more valuable than finding the “right” answer. Underlying my teaching philosophy is a commitment to diversity and inclusion, encompassing gender, racial, class, sexual, ability, religious, and other identities. My interdisciplinary background allows me to teach a variety of courses. I can teach methods courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, including Geographical Information Systems (in ArcGIS, QGIS, or Python), Digital Image Processing, Fundamentals of Remote Sensing , Remote Sensing Applications, and Earth Observation using Machine Learning and satellite data.