She holds a Ph.D. in Geography with a minor in Systems Ecology from the University of Florida. She teaches courses on social forestry, tropical ecology, political ecology, gender and development. Her research focuses on social and ecological dimensions of forestry and rural landscape change in East Africa and Central America. She conducted research on land use and watershed management in the Dominican Republic from 1979 to 1981, worked as a senior scientist at the International Council for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) in Nairobi from 1983 to 1986, and was a Forestry and Agricultural Program Officer for the Ford Foundation in Eastern and Southern Africa from 1986 to 1989.