Verbal
Yes: The Roots of Coercion & The Rise of Consent
In Prep
The Roots of Coercion & The Rise of Consent explores how biology, culture, and learned survival strategies shape the way people relate, respond, and make choices. Integrating evolutionary science, trauma-informed practice, and feminist insight, Stephanie Rianne Schneider investigates how coercive dynamics develop—and how they can be interrupted. The book reframes consent as a relational process built on safety, capacity, and mutual understanding rather than pressure or performance. Blending clear science with practical wisdom, it offers a hopeful framework for building relationships and communities where genuine consent can thrive. A PDF will be available in the shop upon completion in 2026.
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Belong: A Memoir in Fragments
2025
This memoir tells the story of a girl who learned to stay quiet in a world that never felt safe, and how that silence continued through years shaped by mutism, manipulation, sexual harm, captivity, and a body under constant strain. Presented in brief, impressionistic fragments, it reflects the way traumatic experiences are often held and recalled. Belong traces the slow turn from silence to self-recognition as an adult begins to understand the patterns that once felt impossible to name. It is an account of making sense of a lifetime only after stepping far enough back to see it clearly. This book is not currently available for purchase or download.
Modeling Seabird Densities in 3D
2024
Seabirds in 3D is a first-of-its-kind report led by Stephanie R. Schneider in her role as an ecologist at H. T. Harvey & Associates, developed in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team spanning seabird ecology, offshore wind science, oceanography, and spatial modeling. Integrating decades of at-sea surveys with new three-dimensional flight-height and windscape data, the report illustrates where seabirds travel—both over the ocean surface and through the airspace where future floating offshore wind turbines may operate. By mapping movement patterns and typical flying heights for 44 species, it helps identify where clean energy development and seabird pathways are most likely to intersect. The report supports thoughtful offshore wind planning while protecting the species that rely on the California Current’s dynamic marine ecosystem.
Monitoring Seabirds with the ThermalTracker-3D
2024
In this collaborative study, my colleagues and I conducted the first at-sea deployment of the ThermalTracker-3D system, providing a detailed view of how seabirds use the airspace where floating offshore wind turbines may operate. Over 82 days of continuous monitoring, we recorded more than a thousand 3D flight trajectories—day and night and across a full range of wind conditions—capturing flight heights and movement patterns with unprecedented precision. The results show that while most seabirds fly below turbine rotors, a meaningful proportion regularly enters rotor-swept airspace, offering important insight for collision-risk modeling and seabird conservation as offshore wind development expands. The PDF can be downloaded here.
Ecological Insights Revelaed from a Marine Apex Predator
2018
My Master's Thesis examines how one of the largest seabird colonies in the California Current System survives in a marine environment that is constantly shifting beneath them. Through 11 years of continuous monitoring at Castle Rock National Wildlife Refuge, it reveals how these seabirds time their breeding to the pulse of spring upwelling, how hard they must work to raise a single chick, and how close they operate to the edge of energetic collapse. The research shows that even slight changes in prey availability can trigger widespread nesting failure, providing an early warning of how climate-driven shifts in ocean productivity could reshape the future of an apex predator and the ecosystem it anchors. The PDF can be downloaded here.
