Sara Kuebbing (she/her), Director of Research
Sara is the Director of Research for the YaleApplied Science Synthesis Program. Sara is trained as an ecologist with expertise in conservation biology, invasion biology, plant ecology, community ecology, and ecosystem ecology. She conducts research on how humans can make informed decisions on how to best protect and conserve landscapes, ecosystems, and all the species that lives within them. Sara works with a variety of scientists, land managers, and policymakers to focus research questions and share her results.
Prior to moving to YSE, Sara was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh where she ran an empirical research lab in plant ecology and invasion biology. Sara’s research training includes postdoctoral positions with the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies and the Smith Conservation Fellows Program, a PhD from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee and a BS from the Department of Entomology & Wildlife Conservation at the University of Delaware. Sara is excited to be the inaugural director of this new program, where we envision to be a space for open collaboration among practitioners, academics, and policymakers to develop applied science that guides sustainable land management. Please take a look around and get in touch if you have any questions or are interested in collaborating with YASSP!
Lisa Eash (she/her), Postdoctoral Associate
List is a soil ecologist who studies the impacts of regenerative agricultural practices on ecosystemservices. She is passionate about using an interdisciplinary approach and engaging diverse stakeholders to ensure that findings are applicable to land managers and policy makers. Her broader research goal is to identify shifts in agricultural management and policy that support a food system based on healthy soils, climate resiliency, and economic sustainability. You can learn more about Lisa by visiting her LinkedIn page.
Thomas Harris (he/him), Graduate Student
Thomas is a PhD student with Dr. Mark Ashton. He is broadly interested in modeling forest growth, cover type changes, and carbon storage in working-forest landscapes. You can learn more about Thomas by visiting his LinkedIn Profile.
Vincent Haller (he/him), Graduate Student 
Vincent is a second year Master of Environmental Science candidate from Chile, focusing his research on forest carbon modelling with remote sensing variables for REDD+ in southern Chile. He is interested in promoting nature-based solutions by designing proper incentives in the public sector or implementing carbon-financed conservation and restoration projects in the private sector. Vincent has an Industrial civil engineering background with diploma in Environmental Engineering from P. Universidad Católica de Chile. Before coming to YSE, he worked for 3 years as a consultant in EBP Chile, developing projects related to climate change and natural ecosystems with public, private, and multilateral entities. Projects included, for example, greenhouse gas balances for companies, sustainable forest management and restoration initiatives, and feasibility studies for forest carbon projects. He is skilled in quantitative analysis, use of geospatial tools (remote sensing and GIS), and is fluent in Spanish, English, and German. Passionate for outdoor sports and founder of a documentary series called Ecofreeski (www.ecofreeski.com), which shows environmental problems from the perspective of outdoor sport athletes.
Reid Lewis (he/him), Graduate Student
Reid is a PhD student with Dr. Tim Gregoire. He is broadly interested in how we use sampling and modelling to attempt to quantify forest attributes, and is particularly interested in the methods we use to quantify forests to inform climate-oriented stewardship.
Dr. Weier Liu (he/him), Postdoctoral Associate
Weier is interested in the effects of land use management intensity and spatial-temporal scale on the delivery of ecosystem services. He is keen to bridge measurements and experimental studies with management and planning through system-level analysis. His current research is focused on measuring how various forest management practices can affect carbon sequestration on the land and carbon storage in long-lived wood products. You can read more of Weier’s research through his Google Scholar account.
Stanley Tan (he/him), Undergraduate Researcher
Stanley is an undergraduate at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. He is broadly interested in the use of nature-based climate solutions for climate change adaptation and mitigation. At YASSP, his research considers the carbon sequestration potential of croplands in Southeast Asia. Before joining YASSP, he worked at Climate Impact X, a Singapore-based global carbon exchange and marketplace, where he conducted research to enhance the quality of carbon offsets from tropical forest conservation and agricultural land management projects. His past research experiences also include using remote sensing methods for tropical forest carbon prediction models as an intern at the NUS Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions, and the regeneration of Singapore’s tropical mangrove forests at Yale-NUS College’s New Forests and Trees Lab.
Jimena Terrazas Lozano (she/her/hers), Graduate Student 
Jimena is interested in nature-based solutions and carbon markets. Her thesis research focuses on extending rotation ages in plantations in Latin America as a way to increase carbon sequestration. She is also interested in environmental economics and natural capital.
Laura Toro (she/her), Postdoctoral Associate
Laura is a tropical ecologist who uses basic science to understand how we can implement more cost-effective restoration strategies across the tropics. Her goal is to translate these results into applied science that can be implemented in different contexts. She enjoys working with diverse groups of stakeholders that are interested in conservation and restoration of tropical ecosystems. Her current research is focused on estimating the extension of commercial tree plantations in Latin America, their carbon storage potential, and other ecosystem services these plantations provide. Learn more about Laura’s work from her personal website and GoogleScholar profile.
Former YASSP Affiliated Researchers
Dr. Cole Gross (he/him), Postdoctoral Associate
Cole is a a soil scientist focusing on carbon cycling in forests, grasslands, and agroecosystems in response to human land-use and management decisions and climate change. Cole led a study on estimating the current carbon stocks in cranberry agroecosystems in collaboration with Ocean Spray Cranberry, Inc and is now an Assistant Professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.