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CV

Kati McHugh

she/any

Creative Technologist
Environmental Justice Eco-Narrator
Stewardship Documentarian

Education

University of California, Santa Cruz
B.A. Creative Technologies (in progress)
Expected Graduation: June 2026

Relevant Coursework includes:

  • Collaborative Production Practicum (CT 125)
  • Creative Coding (CT 120, CT 20)
  • Persuasion and Resistance: Power in Contemporary Digital Media (CT 101)
  • Digital Platforms: Observations and Practices (CT 100)
  • Digital Media Perspectives (CT 11)
  • Understanding Digital Design (CT 10)
  • Creative Technologies Colloquium (CT 1)
  •  Eco-Metropolis Research Seminar (SOCY 177E)
  • Theatre History: Monsters and Culture (THEA 80C)
  • Theatre History: Muppet Magic (THEA 80L)
  • The Problem with Solutions (CMMU 148)
  • No Place Like Home (CMMU 134)

Artistic & Research Focus

Environmental art and social practice; creative technologies; environmental justice; Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) resilience; community-based research; stewardship as research method; sound mapping and sonic ethnography; participatory GIS and interactive cartography; ecological storytelling; de-monsterification of misunderstood ecologies; narrative intervention; low-tech and energy-conscious digital design.

Selected Creative & Research Projects

Poison Oak (creative persona / performance research)
Educational drag-inspired persona and narrative framework exploring misunderstood plants, people, and environmental ethics through humor, storytelling, and embodied performance. Draws on traditions of drag, eco-theatre, and social practice performance art.

Monstrous Ecologies (2025–ongoing)
Google Earth–based interactive field guide and narrative mapping project examining wildfire, poison oak, prescribed fire, and ecological “monsters” through Indigenous land stewardship, policy history, and cultural storytelling. Combines archival research, field observation, mapping, and interpretive writing.

Ecological Portraiture Photography (2025–ongoing)
Documentary and action-portrait photography focused on conservation labor, stewardship practices, and working landscapes. 

Polyglot Open Space Tour (2025; shelved)
Community-focused sound-mapping project using uMap and OpenStreetMap to document the acoustic identities of local open spaces, coastal bluffs, and bird habitats. Integrates field recording, neighborhood-scale storytelling, and participatory cartography. Future collaborative potential with Coastside Land Trust and Half Moon Bay High School.

Steward (2024–ongoing)
Open-source, low-tech plant care and stewardship logbook app interface. Combines relational data modeling, CSV/JSON-based plant care guides, NFC tagging, and weather-aware task tracking. Designed with energy-efficient, self-hosted principles inspired by Low-Tech Magazine and Solar Powered Web design.

Integrated Pest Munchkin (2019; shelved)
Conceptual tabletop card game adapting the mechanics and tone of Munchkin (Steve Jackson Games) to introduce the principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Translates ecosystem-based pest prevention strategies and decision-making tradeoffs into accessible, humor-driven gameplay. Developed as a proof of concept for potential licensing, collaborative development, and educational outreach.

Professional Experience

San Mateo Resource Conservation District (RCD)
Administrative Assistant – Contracts, Governance, and Operations
February 2025–present

Responsibilities include:

  • Contract administration and compliance for conservation, wildfire resilience, and habitat restoration projects
  • Board governance support, including preparation of formal board meeting minutes and resolutions
  • Procurement policy implementation and process improvement
  • Grant-funded project coordination and documentation
  • Donor CRM streamlining and acknowledgment workflows
  • Cross-department collaboration with project managers, directors, and external agencies (CAL FIRE, NRCS, consultants)

This role informs an applied understanding of environmental governance, public funding structures, and administrative infrastructure that shapes landscape-scale restoration and partnership-based stewardship.

Research Experience

Eco-Metropolis Research Seminar (UC Santa Cruz)
Student Researcher
Spring 2025

Conducted interdisciplinary research on Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) resilience, wildfire policy, displacement, and environmental justice. Engaged qualitative methods, policy analysis, interviews with governmental emergency preparedness workers, and spatial research.

Community-Engaged Field Research (ongoing)
Independent

Qualitative field observation and documentation alongside conservation practitioners, prescribed fire crews, and land managers. Treats stewardship labor, plants, soils, water, and fire as research collaborators and narrative agents.

Teaching & Community Education

Permaculture Garden Manager
Foothill College Horticulture (2018-2020)

Oversaw planting, maintenance, and improvement planning for student-run community college campus garden. Developed and led volunteer-assisted projects including irrigation system overhaul, path maintenance, spring plant-outs, and open house events. Conducted tours and provided information to prospective students, department administrators, campus leadership, and media. Identified Integrated Pest Management opportunities and established systems to improve sanitation, fertilization practices, and biodiversity.

Fitness and Nutrition Coordinator, AmeriCorps (2009-2011)
The HEAL Project / Silicon Valley HealthCorps

Instructed public school students in outdoor garden labs and developed a garden classroom curriculum, collected, tracked, and reported on program participation and other outcomes directly to classrooms, school administration, and grant administrators

Technical & Creative Skills

  • Interactive mapping (GIS, Google Earth, uMap, OpenStreetMap)
  • Digital and analog photography, including darkroom film processing and printing
  • Narrative research and documentation
  • Accessibility-focused web design, metadata and alt-text practices
  • Creative coding and prototyping
  • Low-tech web and interface design
  • Adobe and open-source creative tools
  • Relational data modeling (CSV/JSON)
  • Sound recording and sonic ethnography