Collaborative
The team
Meet our team of passionate researchers, practitioners, professionals, and students
Rebecca Wilcox
Research Scientist
Rebecca Wilcox is a community ecologist. Her research explores how individuals, populations and communities respond to global environmental change. In her work she leverages diverse datasets (climate data, archeological data, museum specimens/artifacts) and utilizes advanced quantitative methods to address contemporary issues in ecology and conservation. Rebecca is currently a research scientist at the California Academy of Sciences.
Shannon Tushingham
Associate Curator of Anthropology
Shannon Tushingham is an anthropological archaeologist. Her research explores how humans interact with their environments, with a focus on hunting, gathering, and fishing societies and collaborative research with Native communities in western North America. With a broad background in Tribal, museum, and academic archaeology, she is currently the Irvine Chair of Anthropology and Associate Curator at CAS, where she is spearheading the development of a Braided Science Institute at the Academy.
Sarah J. Jacobs
Assistant Curator of Botany
Sarah Jacobs is an evolutionary biologist and plant systematist. Her research lab explores the evolution of species, primarily using the plant genus Castilleja (aka, 'the paintbrushes'). She has over 15 years of experience and expertise in collections-based research using plant specimens. As curator of the CAS herbarium, she works to make available and relevant the vast wealth of data held within the cabinets of the collection.
Research Core
Collaborators
Chairman Ron Goode
The Honorable Ron W. Goode, Tribal Chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe since 1983, is a distinguished anthropological archaeologist and retired Community College Professor in Ethnic Studies. A highly recognized leader, he holds an Honorary Doctorate from California State University, Fresno, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Cultural Preservation from the Society of California Archaeology. Dr. Goode publishes widely on topics including ethnobotany and cultural fire and served as Coordinating Lead Author for the Tribal Indigenous Communities Climate Change Assessment. He brings decades of experience in cultural preservation, archaeology, cultural burns, and meadow restoration to the collaborative, where he is a key partner on the Harvest Windows Project.
Shelly Davis-King
Shelly Davis-King has more than 55 years of global experience as a professional anthropologist, largely centering California and western Great Basin ethnography, ethnobiology, archaeology, and history. Her research brings Native American perspectives to the preservation of their ecological, biological, and medicinal history. She has received multiple honors for her dedication to the cultural resource management industry, including the David A. Fredrickson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for California Archaeology (SCA). In addition to being a collaborator on the Harvest Windows Project, her work at the Academy helps to bring Indigenous voices to the institution’s outreach, integrate Native American science with research endeavors, and respectfully transfer ethnographic and historical materials to the Academy’s collections.
Christina Oraftik
Christina is a long-time collaborator supporting the North Fork Mono Tribe (NFMT) on their work bringing Native-led traditional stewardship practices back to the land and building partnerships with other Tribes in California and beyond. She supports the planning and implementation of their cultural burning projects as well as biological monitoring for meadow restoration. Christina also supports the NFMT's collaborations with research institutions, as well as discussions with government agencies on the policy barriers that the NFMT faces. In partnerships with other Tribes, Christina helps coordinate cultural burning workshops and provides technical assistance to support Tribes in implementing their traditional stewardship practices.
Cal Academy Collaborators
Lucy Katzman-Tranah
Lucy is currently an undergraduate studying archeology at the University of Washington. She joined the team in 2025 as an research intern on the Archaeobotanical project