Ruby is a social scientist exploring how managers and researchers are responding to ecological transformation using a case study of the Australian Alps; one of Australia’s most iconic landscapes undergoing dramatic transformation. Drivers of this transformation include beetle-induced snow gum dieback, changing fire regimes, and shifting species’ ranges. Ruby is part of the Save Our Snow Gums Linkage Project, which brings together researchers and managers across NSW, VIC and the ACT grappling with the potential loss of snow gums in the Australian Alps subalpine region. A key component of Ruby’s PhD is designing and facilitating workshops with managers and researchers exploring futures literacy and decision-making frameworks such as the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework. Ruby is also employing a comparative case study analysis of whitebark pine dieback in North America, and has conducted more than 20 semi-structured interviews with US managers and researchers.

Ruby has an undergraduate degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from ANU. Her first foray into environmental science was researching the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). Her honours thesis examined the role of communities in making adaptation decisions, using a case study of the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District in the MDB. Ruby still has a toe in the water space at ANU’s Institute for Water Futures and she now works part-time at the Murray-Darling Basin Authority in the Basin Plan Review Strategy and Integration team undertaking the Basin Plan Review. Ruby is also a member of the Protect Our Winters Science Alliance and was the lead author for the “Our Changing Snowscapes” report (2024), which examined the impacts of climate change on the Australian Alps.