Dr. Brian Peterson

Assistant Professor

Dr. Brian Peterson completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of San Diego, completed his master’s degree at the University of Utah, and completed his doctoral degree at Clemson University. His research focuses on advancing spatiotemporal understanding of visitor travel patterns within parks and protected areas. He has conducted research at a variety of parks and protected areas including: Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Buffalo National River, Cumberland Island National Seashore, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Bonneville Salt Flats, and the Appalachian Trail. Brian also serves as a board member for the George Wright Society. When Brian is not conducting research he enjoys trail running, reading, and backpacking.

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Dr. Michael Brunson

Assistant Teaching Professor

Dr. Brunson is a graduate of the Applied Park Science Lab and teaches courses on natural history, outdoor recreation programming, and environmental interpretation. A Certified Park and Recreation Professional (CPRP) and Leave-No-Trace Master Educator, Dr. Brunson's interests include understanding best practices in parks and protected areas management as well as the promoting positive outdoor recreation experiences and the multitude of benefits they provide. In addition to his teaching and advising duties, Dr. Brunson is also the Undergraduate Programs Coordinator for the Department of Horticulture & Natural Resources.

Dr. Sarah Jackson

Assistant Teaching Professor

Through her professional and academic pursuits, Dr. Jackson has been blessed with pivotal opportunities to engage in a range of research efforts, such as evaluating and addressing visitor-use management within parks and protected areas (PPAs) broadly. Spanning from Virginia to Alaska, these experiences assisted in the progression of her passion to implement proactive, thoughtful, and creative measures regarding natural resource protection through not only research initiatives, but through teaching capacities as well. Specifically, these captivating experiences assisted in the refinement of her primary teaching and research interests.

Current Lab Members

Cait Henry

Project Coordinator; Doctoral Research Assistant

Cait recently graduated from Clemson University with a Master of Science in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management. Her research focuses on the visitor experience and visitation motivations to parks and protected areas, and hopes to branch out into understanding how visitors experience historical and cultural interpretive sites and programs. Although she has lived in South Carolina for almost a decade, she hails from the Saint Louis suburbs and spent her high school years exploring the Shawnee National Forest. She has many cats whom she loves very much, three named after the Aristocrats and one after Stuart Townsend’s rendition of the vampire Lestat. Other hobbies include reading in coffee shops, going to concerts, consuming craft beer, and participating in Trivia Nights even though she is not good at them.

Russell Hicks

Project Coordinator; Doctoral Research Assistant

Originally from Kansas, Russell attended K-State and earned his Bachelor’s in Park Management and Conservation in 2017. After graduating from K-State, he attended the University of Utah where he completed his Master’s of Science in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism. His research focuses on sustainable tourism, visitor use, and impacts of social media on parks and protected areas. He has worked as a biological science technician for 5 summers for the National Park Service at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve and Yellowstone National Park and for the US Forest Service in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest.

Katharina Bremser

Project Coordinator; Master's Student

Being a military brat, Katharina spent most of her early years traveling and getting a chance to enjoy the various parks and recreation areas in a variety of states and countries. She graduated with a Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology degree at Kansas State University in 2020 and English and Psychology degrees from the University of Saint Mary in 2015. While working on her undergrad she assisted with multiple projects on Konza Prairie to better understand plant and grassland bird populations. Before returning to school for her master’s in Horticulture and Natural Resources, she was working with WEST Inc to document the impacts of human development, primarily wind farms, on local wildlife. She has always been passionate about wildlife and wild areas. She loves visiting new parks to go hiking and to spend time with her dog outdoors. She strongly believes that preserving such places and allowing people to visit them is good, not only for the environment, but for people as well.

Brady Wolken

Project Coordinator; Master's Student

Brady graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Park Management and Conservation as well as a secondary major in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences in the fall of 2022. Brady grew up in Shawnee, KS. Shawnee has many city parks but next to no large parks with conserved landscapes. This led Brady to have a greater appreciation of these larger conserved parks and protected areas. Brady’s love for parks and protected areas grew from his participation in two years of environmental education class in high school at Shawnee Mission Northwest and his experience being outside while playing soccer for fifteen years. While being a part of the Applied Parks Science lab Brady is interested in researching accessibility to parks and protected areas.

Bijan Gurang

Project Coordinator; Doctoral Research Assistant

Bijan is from Nepal, a part of the eastern Himalayas. He graduated in environmental science from Kathmandu University in 2001 and joined The University of Tokyo and completed his master's degree in environmental studies with a concentration in environmental biotechnology in 2004. Bijan worked for more than 14 years, most notably for 10 years in World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Nepal office working on projects related to the protection of tigers, Asian rhinos, snow leopards, and the sustainable livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. He joined the Yale School of the Environment (YSE) in 2019 and completed his Masters in Environmental Management (MEM) with a focus on forest economics in 2021. He completed his Summer Forest Apprenticeship in Yale Myers Forests in 2021. Currently, Bijan is pursuing his Ph.D. in the Park Management and Conservation (PMC) lab under Dr. Brian Peterson and his research focuses on "Advancing GIS Technology in Protected Areas Management."

Past Lab Members

Susi Algrim - MS

Susi completed her MS degree in 2017. Her thesis was titled "Finding common ground: Horse riders’ preferences and potential for conflict for varying management actions." She is currently the executive director for the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition.

Tyler Cribbs - MS

Tyler completed his MS degree in 2018. His thesis was titled "Evaluating the Impact of Photo Order on Perceptions of Crowding at Buffalo NationalRiver." He is currently a PhD student at Clemson University working under Dr. Jeff Hallo.

Karl Noren - MS

Karl completed his MS degree in 2018. His thesis was titled "Stakeholder attitudes towards and wildlife acceptance capacity for elk (Cervus elaphus) in Kansas." After graduation he was an instructor for the Park Management and Conservation program at KSU. He is currently a teacher in Cameroon.

Dani Dagan - MS

Dani completed her MS degree in 2019. Her thesis was titled "Social media as a means of understanding park visitors: An evaluation of user-generated content related to two low use, remote national parks." She is currently a PhD student at Clemson University working under Dr. Matthew Brownlee.

Kristin Sikorsky - MS

Kristen completed her MS degree in 2020. Her thesis was titled "The use of drones for recreational impact monitoring of public lands." She is currently a Recreation Staff Officer with the US Forest Service in Arizona.

Dylan Doeblin - MS

Dylan completed his MS degree in 2021. His thesis was titled "The experienced condition and moderating variables as a potential predictor of visitor thresholds in outdoor recreation setting." Dylan currently works for the National Park Service as a Visitor Use Specialist at Joshua Tree National Park.

Amy Cochran - MS

Amy completed her MS degree in 2021. Her thesis was titled "Evaluation of visitor travel patterns after signage treatments at the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve." Amy currently works for the National Park Service as an Interpretive Ranger at Tallgrass National Prairie and Preserve.

Sarah Jackson - PhD

Dr. Jackson completed her PhD degree in 2021. Her dissertation was titled "Christianity and national parks: Seeing God in nature-based experiences." After completing a post-doc at the University of Maine, Sarah has returned to the Park Management and Conservation program where she serves as a professor and researcher.

Michael Brunson - PhD

Dr. Brunson completed his PhD in 2021. His dissertation was titled "Plans for the Future: An Examination of Research Methodology and Education in Parks and Protected Area Visitor Use Management." He is currently serving as a professor in the Park Management and Conservation program at Kansas State University and Undergraduate Programs Coordinator for the Department of Horticulture & Natural Resources.

Julianna Rogowski- MS

Julianna completed her MS degree in 2021. Her thesis was titled " Looking through their eyes: A case study and SWOT analysis of participant-driven videography to inform park research and management." Julianna currently works as a research assistant in the APS Lab at KSU.

Marisol Mayorga - PhD

Dr. Mayorga completed her PhD in 2022. Her dissertation was titled "Public use management in protected areas: Laying the way for a new research trail in post pandemic Costa Rica." She is currently a professor of ecotourism at the University of Costa Rica.

Rachel Shivley - PhD

Dr. Shivley completed her PhD in 2023. Her dissertation was titled "The interface of wildlife and nature tourism." She is currently working for USGS.

Jessy Wilkes - MS

Jessy completed her MS in 2023. Her thesis was titled "Intersecting identities: Investigating effects of multiple hierarchy stratification perspective on visitor activity participation." She is currently working as a social science tech at Grand Teton National Park.

Molly Worm - MS

Molly completed her MS in 2023. Her thesis was titled "Place attachment to campus and community green spaces."

Joseph Ward - MS

Joe completed her MS in 2023. His thesis was titled "Investigating Visitor Behavior in Relation to Leave No Trace Practices." He is currently working at Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial.