Joseph is an Assistant Professor of Forest Soil Health in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment at Virginia Tech. He is a forest ecologist who seeks to connect belowground processes with aboveground forest dynamics to better understand long-term forest function. As a belowground ecologist he is particularly focused on the role of fungal communities in influencing forest growth, health, and structure – particularly after disturbances such as wildfire. Joseph is a PI at the Utah Forest Dynamics Plot, a permanent forest demography plot in the Smithsonian ForestGEO network.