Cole JP Seither
cole -at- cjpseither -dotcom-
Early career researcher in the sustainability transition in agriculture and farmer decision-making. Long-term engagement with restoration ecology research on global tree-planting campaigns, adoption of reforestation best practices, and spatial analysis of project outcomes. Diverse experience at all stages of academic and non-academic research: project conception and planning, data collection, methods development, data management and analysis, and writing. Pursuing postgraduate education in diversified agriculture adoption, farm-level decision-making, and sustainable development using mixed social, ecological, and spatial methods.
Education
University of California, Santa Cruz
BA Agroecology — June 2024
Summa Cum Laude, Department Honors, UCSC Earth Futures Institute Research Grant Recipient
Selected coursework: political ecology, sustainable development, statistics, agroecosystems, climate change biology, ArcGIS Pro
Cuesta College
AS Agriculture & Plant Science — June 2022
Pederson-Platou Biology Award, Spring 2022
Selected coursework: fundamental biology, plant sciences, sustainable agriculture, environmental sciences, natural history field courses.
Employment and Research
Junior Specialist
University of California, Santa Cruz, Holl Restoration Ecology Lab [Sep 24 - current]
Investigated 130 global tree-planting organizations and their implementation of best practices for reforestation and forest restoration.
Co-designed, administered, and processed 65 qualitative surveys from international tree-planting organizations.
Presented survey results in collaboration with the Mongabay Reforestation.app.
Aggregated and managed 70,000+ polygon restoration sites from 15 data sources.
Led project design, data collection, methods development, and writing investigating tree cover changes in globally distributed project areas using 20 spatial data sources.
Developed ecologically appropriate spatial data collection and analysis methods for globally-distributed restoration sites across 6 continents.
Supported the leadership team in project design, methods development, data collection and management, and writing for 3 expected publications.
Environmental Spatial Data Analyst
NASA Earth Sciences DEVELOP, Texas Tech University [Jun 25 - Aug 25]
Co-designed transdisciplinary research with our partner organization, the Oaks and Prairies Joint Venture, on grassland restoration for native bird conservation.
Analyzed and managed data from 14 Earth observation and other spatial data products in Google Earth Engine, ArcGIS Pro and RStudio.
Developed random forest models to assess landscape-scale vegetation composition, structure, and response to restoration activities over 60 million acres of south-central US grasslands.
Assessed site-level vegetation responses to 2 restoration interventions: prescribed burning and shrub management.
Produced 7 distinct deliverables including mapped vegetation predictions, science communication materials, a technical paper, and time series maps of climatic conditions.
Presented research findings at NASA headquarters, Washington DC.
Undergraduate Senior Thesis Advisee
University of California, Santa Cruz, Environmental Studies Department [May 23 - May 24]
Advised by Drs. Karen D. Holl and Madeleine Fairbairn.
Independently researched 40 agroforestry-implementing organizations and the tradeoffs between carbon market requirements and intentions to secure community benefits.
Received the UCSC Earth Futures Institute Frontiers Fellowship Research Grant.
Interviewed 11 subject organizations and reviewed 40 public websites.
Undergraduate Researcher
University of California, Santa Cruz, Holl Restoration Ecology Lab [Jan 23 - May 23]
Assisted in the investigation of 99 global tree-planting intermediary organizations and their adherence to best practices for reforestation.
Conducted 45 website reviews and assisted in data management.
Co-authored the resulting paper published in Conservation Letters.
Human Rights Investigator
University of California, Santa Cruz, Dolores Huerta Research Center [Sep 22 - Apr 23]
Applied open-source intelligence (OSINT) methods to investigate human rights conflicts.
Developed a StoryMap honoring the lives of indigenous land defenders in Brazil.
Trained with Bellingcat on geolocation, sensitive data collection and management.
Publications
Schubert, S. C., Battaglia, K. E., Blebea, C. N., Seither, C. J. P., Wehr, H. L., & Holl, K. D. (2024). Advances and shortfalls in applying best practices to global tree-growing efforts. Conservation Letters, 17, e13002. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.13002
Schubert, S. C., Seither, C. J. P., Berman, O., & Holl, K. D. (in review). Moving from principles to practice: A comprehensive survey of globally leading reforestation organizations.
Skills
Academic Research: methods development; data collection, processing, and analysis; writing
Scientific Communication: strong, clear communication ability with diverse audiences
Mixed-Methods Research: qualitative, quantitative, and spatial methods proficiency
Critical Thinking: adept in independent and collaborative problem solving
Soft Skills: teamwork, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, interpersonal communication
Geospatial Analysis: ArcGIS, Google Earth Engine, R, cloud computing, data management
Coding Languages: R (intermediate), JavaScript (intermediate), Python (beginner)
Teaching
Large Group Tutor in Statistical Methods
University of California, Santa Cruz, Dolores Huerta Research Center [Sep 22 - Dec 22]
Supported 10 students in understanding and implementing diverse statistical methods.
Trained in critical pedagogy and modern instructional methods.
Speaking
National Sustainability Society
University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana [Oct 25]
10-minute presentation, title: Drivers of success in global reforestation campaigns.