Environmental Philosopher & Public Health Scientist

As our societies realize the necessity to reprioritize ecology and biology as master sciences in the great transition upon us, I see science, public health, and philosophy working synergistically, just as medicine now accepts a biopsychosocial model of health. Writ large, this looks like: (1) understanding how life and ecosystems flourish, in order to (2) allow us to figure out how to calibrate our values to meet those non-negotiable fundamentals, so that we can (3) design our societies to meet the needs of all, enabling greater ingenuity, innovation, and empowerment.

Each one of us contributes our own crucial piece of the puzzle in addressing our metacrisis, and I honor each sincere contribution. In my research, education and service efforts, I endeavor to prioritize issues which have the most potential impact to address major societal challenges upstream. My interventions include providing deeper insight into hyped topics, supporting high-level pivots to emergent paradigms in policy or business, metaorganizing the various good-hearted but disorganized single-issue organizations to align and work to make common cause, or precision pushing back against misguided enthusiasm for deus ex machina solutions that are single metric, not effective, or will make things worse.

To accomplish these different modes of recursive research, applied scholarship, mentorship and consulting, I perform experiments, reflect on the history of culture and concepts, and piece together documentary evidence from the archives of the Anthropocene to inform and assess policy, applying systems thinking to bio-ethical cases. These engaged methodologies map multi-level patterns in the social and environmental determinants of health together with philosophical concerns about the utility of our utilities, aiming to provide direction for targeted interventions leveraging ethically- and science-based social and institutional harmonization.

I am lucky enough to have my work funded by multiple active grants on both sides of the Atlantic, large and small, public and private (see Research).