My main areas of research are marine and community ecology, and my work has largely focused on nearshore marine ecosystems; rocky intertidal, kelp forest and seagrass. Further research interests include: biomechanics, thermal stress, ecological networks, climate change, ocean acidification, sustainable resource management, marine protected areas, and science education. I am a PI on PISCO (Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans), a large scale research consortium focused on understanding the ecology and dynamics of the coastal marine region of the California Current.  I am also a PI on OMEGAs (Ocean Margin Ecosystems Group for Acidification Studies) aimed at understanding the effects of ocean acidification on nearshore organisms of the California Current. I lead the baseline data collection effort for the rocky intertidal ecosystems of the southern and central California Marine Protected Areas. I am the co-director of Education for the SBC-LTER (Santa Barbara Channel Long-term Ecological Research) group, the Biodiversity strand leader of the UCSB Math Science Partnership project, and serve on the MSI committee for OCTOS (Outreach Center for Teaching Ocean Science).