Chris is currently a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the USDA Office of the Chief Scientist, where he advises on a range of agricultural science-policy issues related to biodiversity, natural resources, and the environment. Chris earned his PhD from the STEP program in May 2022, where he studied the impact of agricultural land use change on biodiversity and ecosystems, advised by Professor David Wilcove. Chris continued this work in a short postdoc in C-PREE before starting his fellowship in September 2023.

Before graduate school, Chris worked at the environmental NGO Sustainable Conservation, working to encourage river restoration in California’s Central Valley and prevent the use of invasive plants in gardening and landscaping. Chris grew up in East Lansing, MI and graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in ecology & evolutionary biology in 2012.