An environmental and cognitive anthropologist, she has worked with indigenous communities in Siberia since 1988. Her recent research has focused on understanding local perceptions and adaptations of Viliui Sakha communities in the face of unprecedented climate change—a research agenda that has expanded to Canada, Peru, Wales, Kiribati, and the Chesapeake Bay. Crate is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and one monograph, Cows, Kin and Globalization: An Ethnography of Sustainability (AltaMira Press, 2006), and she is co-editor of the Anthropology and Climate Change: From Encounters to Actions (Left Coast Press, 2009). Crate also served on the American Anthropology Association’s Task Force on Climate Change.