Caren Cooper

Bio

Caren uses geospatial analytics to discern large-scale patterns across the natural and built environments to gain insights into the ecology, evolution and conservation of birds, as well as expose racial and economic inequities in environmental hazards and in the representativeness of environmental data itself. She develops public science programs that focus volunteer interests towards the generation of large-scale data to study and visualize the interactions between social and ecological systems. Her other interests include the ecosystem services of trees and public understanding of urban forests, for mitigation of air, light and noise pollution, flood risk and urban heat island effects.

Publications

• Not Empty Rain Gauges: Experienced Hobbyists Fulfilled in a Contributory Project , Citizen Science: Theory and Practice (2025)
• Public detection of lead plumbing and perceptions of municipal and well drinking water safety in the United States , ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH: INFRASTRUCTURE AND SUSTAINABILITY (2025)
• A Positionality Tool to Support Ethical Research and Inclusion in the Participatory Sciences , Citizen Science: Theory and Practice (2024)
• A framework for contextualizing social-ecological biases in contributory science data , PEOPLE AND NATURE (2024)
• Exploring Project Connections Across the Citizen Science Landscape: A Social Network Analysis of Shared Volunteers , SAGE OPEN (2024)
• The Dual Nature of Trust in Participatory Sciences: An Investigation into Data Quality and Household Privacy Preferences , Citizen Science: Theory and Practice (2024)
• Diversifying Large-Scale Participatory Science: The Efficacy of Engagement through Facilitator Organizations , Citizen Science: Theory and Practice (2023)
• Equitable Data Governance Models for the Participatory Sciences , Community Science (2023)
• Facilitator organizations enhance learning and action through citizen science: a case study of Girl Scouts' Think Like a Citizen Scientist journey on SciStarter , ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION RESEARCH (2023)
• Mapping the Landscape of Citizen Science in Africa: Assessing its Potential Contributions to Sustainable Development Goals 6 and 11 on Access to Clean Water and Sanitation and Sustainable Cities , Citizen Science: Theory and Practice (2023)