I received my B.A. from Rutgers University and PhD from University of California Berkeley (working with Terry Chapin and Mary Firestone). My research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of plant-soil interactions and applying this understanding to ecosystem management, restoration, invasions, ecosystem processes, and rangelands in a changing environment. I am particularly interested in understanding the controls over plant community interactions and multiple ecosystem services, and how these patterns and controls vary across the landscape, over time, and due to environmental changes. Most of my work occurs in California grasslands on working landscapes. Other study systems include: wetlands, riparian ecosystems, degraded grasslands in Inner Mongolia, Northeastern forests (particularly understory dynamics), alpine meadows and forests, and cropping systems in California, Illinois, and New York.