Andrew S. Roberts

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ANDREW S. ROBERTS

An ecologist by training,​​ I am reskilling to transition into data analytics and geospatial data science. I am a methodological omnivore, and approach complex problems by weaving together disparate data sets into a cohesive narrative, to reveal emergent patterns which would otherwise have remained obscured. My domain expertise is in agriculture, agroforestry and agrarian livelihoods; land use/land cover change; conservation and international development; with area expertise in the United States, Southeast Asia, Spain and East Africa. I carry a diverse skillset, stemming from both practical experience and formal training. For the last 11 years, I have managed our small, family farm. I have raised lots of ducks and geese, built and managed a business selling pasture-raised duck eggs, designed and installed agroforestry systems (i.e. planted lots of trees!), propagated and sold fruit trees, and more. I have also taken advanced training in permaculture design. Prior to that, I designed and implemented a doctoral research project (CUNY-GC/NYBG, Biology, 2011) analyzing the changing landscape around a village in rural Cambodia and how this affected the livelihoods of poor farmers as they navigated over 50 years of war and political flux. I used many different methodologies, from written livelihood surveys and oral history interviews, to statistical analyses of vegetation inventories, and spatial analysis of time series aerial photography. This village-based project also depended upon my cross-cultural communication and team building skills that I developed serving as an agroforestry educator in rural Tanzania with the Peace Corps. I planted rice, herded cattle and plucked fish from gillnets, too! I can communicate with a range of audiences, having presented for school children and academic peers, as well as the lay public (in my native English, as well as both Khmer and Swahili). Similarly, I have authored successfully funded grants, academic articles and have also written on ecological topics for my town newsletter. Having spent extended periods of time living and working in remote villages in less-developed countries, I have cultivated flexibility and independence, and am comfortable improvising in poorly-resourced environments. Outside of work, I train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, propagate unusual fruit trees and am learning Spanish.