The Doris Duke Conservation Fellows Program
Doris Duke Conservation Fellows: Profiles
Andrea Armstrong is an M.S. student in Cornell University's Department of Natural Resources. Her interests are rooted in natural resource sociology surrounding land use and water quality in transitioning landscapes. Within this realm, Andrea's thesis work considers the social aspects of riparian best management practice adoption by non-agricultural landowners in an urbanizing watershed. Prior to her current work, Andrea was an Honors Paralegal at the U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division in Washington, DC.
She received her B.S. from Cornell University in 2006. Her academic and career interests are derived from the natural beauty of her hometown in upstate NY.
Michael is a Master of Environmental Management candidate at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. He grew up in Gloucester, Massachusetts where he developed a strong affinity for the ocean and earned a B.S. in Environmental Science at Merrimack College. For the past 3 years, he has worked for NOAA Fisheries Service on the conservation of harbor porpoises and other marine mammals. At Yale, he is focusing on exploring more efficient policy solutions for marine mammal conservation in the U.S.
Specializing in the Political Economy of the Environment at the Bren School, Lindsay focuses on encouraging conservation through sustainable economic growth via mutually supportive trade and environmental policies. She spent her DDCF internship in Geneva, Switzerland with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development covering trade and environment issues for an online bi-weekly publication. She also assisted with coordinating international dialogues to address key issues in preparation for the UNFCCC meeting of the parties in Copenhagen this December. Outside her internship, Lindsay conducted research on water scarcity and climate change issues as part of the Duke University Global Environmental Policy and Governance Program.
Lindsay earned her B.A. in Marine Science from the University of California Santa Cruz were she developed an interest in the intersection between policy and science. Looking to broaden her skill set and perspective after graduation, Lindsay volunteered as a research diver along the California and Baja coast while gaining work experience in information technology, project management and program assessment. In her spare time, Lindsay enjoys open water swimming, long-distance cycling and traveling.
Sidney Brown is pursuing a master's degree in environmental justice from the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment and a master's degree in public policy from Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. Originally from Brush Prairie, WA, Sidney earned two undergraduate degrees from the University of Washington in 2006: the first a double major in European studies and history; the second in international studies.
She is interested in trans-border environmental management, international development and the relationship between income disparities and natural resources. Her interest in environmental justice and international policy culminated in a summer 2008 internship with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation—the environmental branch of NAFTA. This organization shares Sidney's commitment to addressing environmental and conservation issues in a manner that transcends borders.
Jesse is a student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He is focusing on resource economics and environmental law and policy. This summer Jesse is doing a joint internship with the new USDA Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets and with Resources for the Future, a nonprofit economics think tank. He is interested specifically in valuation techniques for ecosystem services and in the way people value nature.
Prior to starting grad school, Jesse spent four years as a wilderness ranger in Yosemite National Park. Because of his time in Yosemite and growing up in the mountains of Oregon and Washington, Jesse spent numerous months and years traveling around the world rock and mountain climbing.
Jesse received a bachelor’s of music from Portland State University with an emphasis in jazz performance. After graduation, Jesse would like to head back to the West where he can work with land managers to create new methods for conservation.
Matthew Carroll is currently an intern with the Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers and Fire and Aviation Management programs at the USDA Forest Service. He is a second year Master of Forestry candidate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a Doris Duke Fellow. He is on leave from a position as a Smokejumper for the USDA Forest Service in McCall, ID. His wildland firefighting career has spanned 9 years and over 150 fire or all risk assignments. Matthew has a Bachelors of Arts from College of the Atlantic and an Associates of Science in Applied Ecology and Environmental Technology from Paul Smith's College. His current interests are in Ecosystem services, public land management and socio-ecological resilience.
Evan is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment. He has worked as a field biologist on numerous projects across the U.S. and in southern Africa including research on endangered salmon populations, the relationship between silvicultural practices and salamander diversity, interactions between native and invasive crayfish, and the effects of eco-tourism on black rhino populations. His research at SNRE is focused on fish migrations in the great lakes region. Dams and culverts restrict some fish to 10% of their historic spawning range and little is known about the implications of this for stream ecosystems. His research is specifically focused on suckers, whose charisma is too often overlooked. Evan is also doing an internship with The Nature Conservancy examining the distribution of stream barriers. Evan grew up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and hopes to return there to continue exploring our relationship with running waters and facilitating effective watershed management.
Stella Cousins is currently completing a master's of forest science degree at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. Her research examines forest ecosystem function in the Connecticut Highlands, where development fragments extensive forested landscapes.
Stella hails from California's San Joaquin Valley and holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. Her interests range from protected areas management and land use planning to plant ecology and environmental history. Before returning to graduate school, Stella mapped vegetation in the Sierra Nevada, surveyed conservation easements on ranches in Marin County, and served as a biologist-planner-cartographer-outdoorswoman for an open space agency in the San Francisco Bay area.
Stella's work in summer 2009 will be with the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry, a program of Yale University dedicated to sustaining forests in a changing world.
Liese Dart is a graduate student in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin. She is a pursuing a Master’s of Science in Environment and Resources and an Energy Analysis and Policy Certificate. Liese’s research interests include the ways state and national electricity regulation and planning practices will intersect with future climate policy in the United States. She is specifically interested in the environmental impacts of building a new national transmission grid, as well as large scale programs to reduce electricity use. Prior to graduate school, Liese spent three years working for a nonprofit environmental advocacy group based in Virginia called the Piedmont Environmental Council. Liese holds undergraduate degrees in Studio Art and Art History from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her interests outside of school include documentary filmmaking, travel and painting. Liese is an intern in the Gas & Electricity Division of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission for summer 2009 where she is learning about transmission line planning and how it pertains to renewable and fossil fuel energy supply for the U.S. moving forward.
A Montana native, Gavin received a B.S. in Geology from the University of Washington in Seattle. After working as a oceanographic research assistant and a geologic consultant, Gavin spent time traveling through South America before moving to California. He worked assorted office jobs before ditching the desk for a 2-year stint as a tour guide, leading thousands of visitors to places like Yosemite, the California coast, and Wine Country. While he is interested in all aspects of the outdoors and conservation, Gavin believes that climate change is the environmental issue of our time and is at the heart of conservation. Gavin is currently pursuing his Masters in Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he is focusing on Policy and Economics, with coursework emphasizing climate change. In his spare time Gavin enjoys hiking, backpacking, cycling, skiing (anything outdoors), cooking, and traveling.
Kate Freund is a Master of Environmental Management candidate at the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale University. Her research focuses on how climate change combined with habitat fragmentation will endanger species, and is currently working with the National Park Service in Washington State to predict future range shifting and identify conservation challenges for mammals in the region. Before coming to Yale, Kate worked as a legislative advocate for the environmental group Earthjustice in Washington, DC, where she lobbied Congress on wildlife and endangered species issues and coordinated a national education campaign regarding the threats of climate change to wildlife. She also spent a year at the La Selva research station in Costa Rica studying avian life-history behavior. Kate received her B.A. in Biology and Public Policy from Pomona College in 2003.
Catherine earned her B.A. in art and biology from Albion College in Albion, MI. At some point between painting landscape murals and coordinating environmental programs for local elementary schools, she realized that art could play a crucial role in communicating about environmental issues. She then decided to combine her art and biology interests in the field of environmental education. Currently a student at the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, Catherine enjoys exploring how art can be used as a tool to develop creative experiences for people to learn about environmental conservation.
Matt Griffis is studying environmental policy and planning at the University of Michigan. He is interested in public land planning and management, specifically in regards to protected areas. His research is focused on the siting of solar energy facilities in the California desert. Matt's internship was with the National Park Service at Golden Gate National Recreation Area, where he developed the park's ocean stewardship plan. Before graduate school, Matt was an outdoor skills instructor for the East Bay Regional Park District in Oakland, California. He has also worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and as a trail crew foreman and backpacking guide in northern New Mexico. Matt holds a BS in environmental sciences from the University of California, Berkeley.
Ryan has cultivated a long-standing interest in ecology and environmental conservation in part due to his upbringing in the natural areas of rural Wisconsin. Since beginning graduate study at Florida A&M University, Ryan has assist in the management of the Biology Department’s computer lab as a network administrator and has taught several laboratory courses in introductory biology and ecology, in addition to leading his graduate research project. Presently, he is conducting a comparative survey study of Florida apple snail (Pomacea paludosa) populations in three major rivers across Florida’s Big Bend biogeographic region. The aquatic apple-snail population in the Wakulla River, for example, has experienced a dramatic decline over the last decade. His conservation and research goals in this study include baseline assessment and comparative analyses of these populations and their aquatic habitats. Ryan is additionally interested in the ecological impacts of invasive species and other anthropogenic factors impacting wetland habitats and their native taxa. In this research he hopes to employ his recent familiarity with geographic information systems (GIS) gained through the College of Engineering Sciences, Technology and Agriculture (CESTA), and has recently presented an Everglades case study for the Environmental Sciences Institute (ESI) seminar series. Ryan anticipates that the Doris Duke Conservation Fellowship will greatly enhance his ability to complete his research and utilize it among academic and regional environmental conservation community to inform decisions about our important natural environments and their native fauna.
Allison attended Connecticut College and graduated in 2002 with a major in environmental studies. For the next six months, she worked as an intern for the League of Conservation Voters and tracked the environmental voting records of Congressional candidates. She then spent the next four years at the U.S. Green Building Council, working with local chapter leaders to help them grow the green building movement. Most recently, Allison volunteered at WaterAid Uganda where she assisted with educating local government leaders and village communities about ways to work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal for access to clean water and sanitation.
Allison is currently working towards a master’s of environmental management degree at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment with a focus on energy. Her summer internship at Pacific Gas & Electric Company in San Francisco includes assisting the local government partnership team with energy efficiency programs. She aims to focus her career on climate change policy with a particular interest in the linkages between energy and water.
Colin Hume is a Masters student studying Conservation Biology and Environmental Planning at the Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment. Originally from Seattle, Washington, Colin grew up hiking in the mountains and forests of the western U.S., developing a love for wild places. After earning a B.S. in Biology from Western Washington University, he spent several years working on wildlife surveys for the USDA Forest Service in Montana and California, and working for a NGO in Afghanistan. Additionally, Colin served as the Assistant Director for Snowboarding at Big Sky Resort, in Big Sky, Montana. Adjusting to life in the flat Midwest, Colin continues to focus on the conservation potential of both public and private lands, through development of best use and management practices in his Masters studies. Colin is part of a team of graduate researchers investigating marine ecosystem-based management initiatives throughout the world.
During the summer of 2009 he worked for the Huron River Watershed Council as a coordinator of their Bioreserve program, leading teams of volunteers on environmental assessments of natural areas throughout the watershed.
Raised by parents who met in the Peace Corps, Amelia spent her formative years in Nepal where she remembers riding elephants through the jungle and gazing at the stars above the Himalayas. Later, when Amelia’s family moved to the Washington, DC suburbs, she was shocked to discover that the wooded areas that she and her brothers played in were slowly being converted into housing developments. As a result of her experiences, Amelia became impassioned to defend the environment and has worked in a variety of environmental disciplines to focus her interests and find the best fit. After graduating cum laude from the College of William and Mary, Amelia taught for a year in France, and then worked on environmental projects and campaigns with Friends of the Earth, Vermont Public Interest Research Group, Earth Day Network, and the United Nations Development Program in Ecuador.
In addition, Amelia often volunteers for environmental causes. In Ecuador, she initiated recycling programs at nine schools, collaborated with community residents to reduce waste, and developed environmental education materials for city schools. Upon her return to the US, Amelia used her free time to rally community members to improve a poorly planned development project in the Washington, DC area.
Amelia is currently studying at Duke University for a Masters in Environmental Management and a Certificate in International Development Policy. During the summer of 2009, Amelia interned with the Southern Environmental Law Center where she wrote a report on the economic benefits of wilderness areas in Virginia’s George Washington national forest. Later in the summer, she collaborated with the Nature Conservation Division of the Department of Forestry Services in Bhutan. These internships reflect Amelia’s interest to conserve forests both in the US and abroad.
Kenneth hails from Atlanta, GA. He has so far attained a B.S. in agricultural science, with a concentration in agronomy, from Florida A&M University, and is currently working towards his master's in agricultural science, with a concentration in plant/soil science, also from FAMU. His current area of research is in soils of the ephemeral ponds in Apalachicola National Forest, FL. Kenneth's areas of interest are: soil/water conservation, low volume/high frequency irrigation, water quality/arsenic removal, soil mapping/GIS, agronomy, and soil science.
Russell grew up hunting, fishing, hiking and camping the rugged Texas outdoors, which spawned his interests in ecology. He received his B.S. from Texas A&M University in Wildlife and Fisheries Science and is studying terrestrial ecology, conservation, environmental policy and planning, and environmental informatics at the University of Michigan.
This summer he interned with the US Department of Agriculture in Washington DC where he assisted in the program formation for the new Biomass Crop Assistance Program. He is interested in working within the emerging bioenergy industry to ensure the sustainable production of our biomass resources, particularly related to the restoration and maintenance of healthy ecosystems and wildlife habitat.
Kelley Meinhardt was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico and later moved to a small town in Colorado with her mother and three younger brothers. After graduating from high school, Kelley decided to pursue a bachelor’s degree at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. There she met her husband, Christian, who is studying Environmental Engineering. She graduated from NAU with a B.S. in Environmental Science and a minor in Biology. Directly afterwards, she was accepted into the M.S. Environmental Science and Policy Program at NAU. The overarching hypothesis for Kelley’s thesis work is that invasive tamarisk increase cottonwood mortality by negatively affecting their mycorrhizal mutualists. Increased knowledge about mycorrhizae could reveal species that are tolerant of tamarisk. These species could be used in restoration efforts to promote cottonwood establishment. The riparian ecosystem is an endangered ecosystem in the Southwest, and results in accordance with Kelley’s hypotheses could have a broad application in cottonwood, and ultimately, riparian habitat restoration efforts. Thanks to the support of her Doris Duke Fellowship, Kelley is interning with the Grand Canyon National Park Service this summer, with focus on invasive species management and public outreach.
Sherilyn Morgan is pursuing a master’s degree from the Environmental Sciences Institute at Florida A&M University. Ms. Morgan’s concentration is in the area of Estuarine and Marine Environments.
In 2007, Ms. Morgan received her bachelor’s degree in general biology from Bowie State University. As an undergraduate, she participated in a variety of internships that ranged from entomology to biochemistry. Yet an internship in environmental chemistry, quantifying organic pollutants in wild Carp, launched her interest in conserving the environment. She found that environmental research was the most rewarding compared to her other research experiences.
Ms. Morgan has an interest in marine microbial ecology with a specific focus on the microbial diversity found in paper and pulp mill effluent. Microorganisms are the first indicators of change in ecosystems therefore Ms. Morgan is monitoring the abundance and diversity of marine bacteria in the perturbed aquatic ecosystem. This summer, Ms. Morgan will intern with the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge located in St. Marks, Florida.
Raised in Pennsylvania, Lauren first discovered the landscapes of the American West on a 1997 college backpacking trip. This experience inspired her to pursue undergraduate minors in biology and outdoor education. On receiving her BA from Earlham College in 2001, Lauren went to work for Outward Bound in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters, migrating westward to instruct courses in the Big Bend region of Texas and in Montana’s Beartooth Mountains. She also spent three summers in California and Washington, conducting backcountry point counts for the Institute for Bird Populations. Lauren began her Master’s degree in Environmental Sciences and Policy at Northern Arizona University in 2008. For her thesis research and her summer internship Lauren is working with the non-profit Grand Canyon Trust (GCT) to study post-fire livestock management practices on public lands and the ponderosa pine understory community response to livestock grazing following fire. This project is part of a larger GCT initiative to manage a historic ranch on National Forest and BLM lands for conservation and restoration. On completion of her degree Lauren hopes to further contribute to collaborative efforts to protect and conserve the unique and biologically important landscapes of the Western U.S.
For her thesis research and her summer internship Lauren is working with the non-profit Grand Canyon Trust (GCT) to study post-fire livestock management practices on public lands and the ponderosa pine understory community response to livestock grazing following fire.
Jolvan is a first year graduate student at Florida A&M University working on a master’s in environmental policy. Her passion for wildlife and environmental conservation has inspired Ms. Morris to focus her studies on elements that impact wildlife in more than just the physical sense. She plans to conduct research and work on projects that promote environmental literacy and assess environmental policies so that the public and future generations will understand the importance of fish and wildlife, as well as the need to protect the organisms that we share the planet with. This summer Jolvan is interning at NOAA’s Northeast Regional office with the Protected Resources Division.
Dana grew up in a small mountain town in California and received her undergraduate degree in Geography and Environmental Studies from UCLA. After graduation, Dana served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica where she worked with an NGO on their protected area management plan and taught environmental science at a community college. Since returning to the U.S., Dana has spent the past five years working at environmental non-profits: as the Director of Education at the California Wildlife Center, facilitating community tree plantings through TreePeople, and creating public programs at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Dana has also been volunteering for Reef Check as a research SCUBA diver for the past seven years, collecting scientific data that is being used in the development of marine protected areas in California. In between work and school, Dana travels abroad frequently to volunteer, live, and travel in local communities in countries such as Malawi, Bolivia, Kenya, Nicaragua, Botswana, and South Africa where she has fostered cultural sensitivity while gaining an understanding of how to approach conservation in developing countries. Now a Masters student at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, Dana is specializing in Conservation Planning and Coastal Marine Resources Management. As the Project Manager for her master's thesis group project, Dana is developing conceptual models and an ecological monitoring framework to support an adaptive management plan for Tejon Ranch, a hotspot of biological diversity and the largest contiguous private landholding in California. During the summer of 2009, Dana will be interning in Washington D.C. for the World Wildlife Fund as a Conservation Social Science Intern, working on a project researching protected area emergence and evolution around the world. Inspired by her experiences and work in the Peace Corps and other developing countries, after graduation Dana hopes to work on international conservation projects that benefit the environment as well as local people. Dana enjoys SCUBA diving, volunteering, backpacking, surfing, sailing, and experiencing world cultures.
Rachel Neugarten is a master's student in the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University. Her research focuses on forest land conservation and sustainable development in the Adirondack region of New York state. Prior to starting her graduate work, Rachel spent four years working for The Nature Conservancy, developing freshwater ecological assessments and tools for conservation planning and evaluation. Rachel has an undergraduate degree in environmental biology from Columbia University. As an undergraduate, she was lucky enough to spend a semester studying tropical biology in Costa Rica through a program run by Duke and the Organization for Tropical Studies. In her academic and professional career, Rachel hopes to continue to bring together ecological and socioeconomic research to promote biodiversity conservation and human well-being.
A native to northern Wisconsin, Erik graduated from UW Stevens Point with a major in biology. While at UWSP he focused on the study of ecology; spending time abroad to study the ecology of Greenland, Costa Rica, and the desert southwest. After graduating he worked for the Prairie Ecosystem Research Group on the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado doing plague-related black-tailed prairie dog research. Later he worked for the USDA APHIS National Wildlife Research Center based out of Fort Collins, Colorado. This work brought him to Oregon to study the effects of the drug Nicarbazine on Canada goose egg viability in order to determine its potential use in Canada goose population control. Following a stint as a dockhand in the Alaskan panhandle Erik took a Natural Resource Specialist position with the Lac Coutre Oreilles Ojibwe Community College doing research, education, and outreach. The research involved determining the distributions of aquatic plants within local lak es and streams, and investigating small mammal distributions and coarse woody debris in different forest stand types within the Chequamegon National Forest for correlation with the frequency of American marten occurrence.
Erik is currently working on determining the environmental attributes that influence the distribution and abundance of Eurasian watermilfoil, Myriophyllum spicatum, in Wisconsin s third largest lake, the Chippewa Flowage. Eurasian watermilfoil is an aquatic invasive species that grows quickly in spring creating dense mats at the waters surface that negatively impact: navigation, recreation, native macrophytes, and fish and wildlife. Utilizing a large dataset collected during the summers of 2004-2007 while working for the Lac Courte Orielles Ojibwe Community College, Erik is correlating both Eurasian watermilfoil abundance and distribution to different environmental factors such as: species richness, water depth, water clarity, native macrophyte abundance, trophic status index, and proximity to; developed shoreline, high-use areas, campgrounds, resorts, boat landings, and large Eurasian watermilfoil infestations. This research will provide further information to support aquatic plant management within the Chippewa Flowage and add to the existing knowledge base of Eurasian watermilfoil ecology. Erik is also interested in utilizing the data to analyze different macrophyte survey techniques.
Dan grew up in Bloomington Indiana, before heading off to the beach and the University of Miami where he received his Bachelor’s degree in ecosystem science and policy as well as biology. After completing his undergraduate schooling, he continued living in Miami while working as the program coordinator and lab manager for a shark research program based out of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Dan decided to seek his Master’s degree at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management in order to pursue his interest in the development of practical solutions to environmental problems, especially with regard to the conservation of marine ecosystems. His current work in this area involves researching the use of economic incentives to promote the development of sustainable fisheries. His hobbies include music, travel, surfing and rugby.
Currently a Master's candidate at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, Lindsey holds a B.S. in Marine Science and Biology from the University of Miami (FL). Before coming to Duke, Lindsey worked with non-profit organizations, government agencies, community members and fishermen in California and Northwest Mexico for six years to research, protect and educate about endangered sea turtles and threatened natural resources of the eastern Pacific. At Duke, she is focusing on Coastal Environmental Management, and her research interests include the ecology and conservation of migratory marine megafauna. One of the most interesting and exciting parts of Lindsey’s profession is her participation in at-sea field research. She has spent many months on research vessels collecting species and oceanographic data for projects including an olive ridley sea turtle ecology project in collaboration with the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, supported by NOAA; and a multi-species, multi-scale humpback whale tagging project in Antarctica led by the Duke University Marine Lab, supported by the National Science Foundation. After graduation, Lindsey plans to pursue a doctoral degree and continue her efforts to understand and protect migratory marine species in an interdisciplinary and culturally sensitive manner.
Lisanne Petracca is a Masters candidate at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Tufts University in 2006, with degrees in Environmental Studies (B.S.), Psychology (B.S.), and Biomedical Engineering Systems (B.A.). She also graduated with summa cum laude and high thesis honors distinctions. Lisanne’s passion for the environment drove her to pursue undergraduate fieldwork in Australia, the French Alps, Tanzania, and Costa Rica, and allowed her to study such diverse creatures as land crabs in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica, and the hippopotamus in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Her capstone project in Tanzania was considered her undergraduate career highlight, which gave her the opportunity to map the demography and spatial distribution of the Maasai giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) in a critical migratory corridor between two major national parks.
Following graduation, Lisanne traveled to the Marshall Islands to teach English on Namdrik, a remote outer atoll with no running water and limited solar electricity. While on Namdrik, Lisanne lived in a thatched hut bordering the lagoon, became advanced in the Marshallese language, and used her newfound ukulele skills to start a children’s choir. She also organized a battery drive that removed thousands of used batteries from the atoll. Lisanne spent a second year teaching on Majuro, the main atoll, where she designed a science curriculum at a high school for at-risk youth and started a choir that performed two successful concerts.
At the Nicholas School, Lisanne is focusing on community-based approaches to wildlife management and conservation, with additional interests in geospatial analysis, human-wildlife conflict, indigenous peoples, and international development policy. For summer 2009, she is traveling to Belize to assist the NGO Panthera in the ground-truthing of a jaguar migratory corridor, and hopes to use this opportunity as a stepping stone to tackle similar projects related to wildlife species conservation at an international scale.
Jessica Price is pursuing a Master’s in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her research interests center on the links between biodiversity and ecological functions in forest ecosystems. She is especially interested in the potential effects of climate change and resource demand on biodiversity and persistence of endangered species as well as ecosystem composition, structure, and function.
In collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, Jessica is working to apply scientific research and modeling to evaluate the conservation effectiveness of various land management regimes under different climate change projections. This project synthesizes both natural and social sciences to project the outcome of management decisions on both the health and functioning of forests, including their ability to provision ecosystem services and meet anthropogenic needs, in locations of conservation interest.
Jessica is originally from Hot Springs, Arkansas, where she grew up enjoying the beautiful and unique Quachita and Ozark mountains and gained an appreciation for the close links between humans and the environment. She received her B.A. in biology and art history from Lake Forest College in 2006. Before arriving in Madison in 2008, Jessica worked as a science writer and editor at the University of Chicago and as Assistant to the Director of the Tongass Conservation Society in Ketchikan, Alaska.
Chris has a great interest in the use of sound science and collaborative processes to build sustainable environmental policy. He believes that rigorous science can be an effective policy-building tool, but only within the proper social framework. His current research focuses on combining science and collaboration to yield better results for conservation, specifically forest management in the American Southwest.
This past summer, Chris interned with the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Sarah Rueth is a student of Environment and Resources in the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is interested in the ecology and conservation of the tallgrass prairie, with a current focus on vegetation. Her research assesses the recovery of two remnant wet prairies in southeastern Wisconsin after severe flooding, and she hopes to further understand how climate change and related weather extremes may affect native ecosystems. Sarah has enjoyed working with and learning from conservation organizations such as the Catalina Island Conservancy and the UW-Madison Arboretum, and plans to continue her career in the non-profit sector after completing her degree.
In summer 2009, she is interning with Mark Martin at the Madison Audubon Society. He is faciliating Sarah’s desire to explore different topics within conservation, from an inventory of plant species at a restoration site to bird counts on the same prairie she is sampling for her thesis research. She will likely continue through the fall.
Nerissa is pursuing an M.S. in Conservation Biology and Environmental Policy and Planning at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment. She is interested in land management, wildlife conservation, and the conflicts that arise in multiple-use areas. Her graduate work examines the siting of large-scale solar facilities in the California Desert and this summer she is interning with The Nature Conservancy, Colorado to create a conservation management plan for a shortgrass prairie. Prior to Michigan, Nerissa worked as a field biologist for several university-based research projects in California and Wyoming. Nerissa received a B.S. in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology from the University of California, Davis and enjoys working with birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.
She is interning with The Nature Conservancy, Colorado's Boulder office for summer 2009.
Originally from San Diego, California, Ginevra holds a B.S. in Molecular Environmental Biology from UC Berkeley with a concentration in biodiversity. She was influenced to study biology from her time spent working in the San Diego Zoo’s education department. She spent her undergraduate career working on projects ranging from amblypygid behavior and spider phylogenetics, to mangrove ecology. She studied abroad for a semester in the South Pacific at UC Berkeley’s Gump station on Mo’orea and conducted independent research on jumping spiders. She spent three field seasons researching mangrove ecology in Panama and witnessed their continued destruction on each subsequent visit. This inspired her to steer her career toward more applied aspects of conservation so she could work to directly conserve land. Her honors thesis used GIS to create improved range maps for mammals for use in macroecology and conservation. After graduating she worked as a technician for a macroecology lab at UCSD. She then interned with the USGS on the Big Island of Hawaii studying the effects of introduced parasitoids on native caterpillars and the control of invasive ant species using pheromones.
Currently a Master’s candidate at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, Ginevra is interested in analyzing the benefits provided by private land conservation. She will spend the 2009 summer with the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy in Asheville, North Carolina. This fall Ginevra will be co-teaching a class on the practice of land conservation. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in public or non-profit conservation planning.
Amy is studying landscape management with attention to water resources at the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Environmental and Natural Resources with a concentration in Economic Policy from Clemson University in 2004 and then volunteered in Madhya Pradesh, India in support of Bandhavgarh National Park. While working for The Nature Conservancy’s Chesapeake Bay Initiative she became familiar with the logistics of large scale conservation and project coordination. Based on her interest in watershed functionality, Amy’s master’s research focuses on the interface between terrestrial ecosystem management decisions and freshwater ecological response. Other research experiences include the development of conservation measures for the Green River project in Kentucky, regulatory response to the impact of wet weather events on sewerage, and marine ecosystem based management.
She will be spending summer 2009 interning first with the Kentucky Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, working on conservation measures for the Green River project. The second half of the summer will be spent with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, researching the EPA's regional responses to wet weather events and their impact on sewerage.
Erin Savage is currently pursuing a Master's of Environmental Science at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Originally from Pullman, Washington, she received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Washington. She completed her honors thesis on crustacean neuroendocrinology. She then decided to pursue a career in conservation while conducting research for the Wildlife Conservation Society on southern elephant seals in Argentina. After graduation from the University of Washington, she received a Bonderman Fellowship, which allowed her to spend 8 months traveling through South America and Africa to learn about different strategies in wildlife and protected area management. To complete her Master's thesis, she is spending the summer in southeastern Arizona, researching ecological and social aspects of mountain lion depredation of livestock. Upon completion of her graduate program, she plans to pursue a career involving the creation of conservation management strategies that address the multiple needs of wildlife, land and local people.
This summer, Erin is working in Graham and Greenlee counties in Arizona, looking into the ecological and anthropogenic factors that may contribute to mountain lion depredation of livestock in the area.
Tory Shelley, originally from Los Angeles, CA graduated from Smith College in 2002 having spent time abroad in Kenya studying human-wildlife conflict. After 3 years in outdoor environmental education, she spent a year in Suriname, South America, studying the behavioral ecology of Brown Capuchin monkeys. She now attends the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development program and is part of the Carnivore Coexistence Lab focusing on human dimensions aspects of human-wolf conflict and First Nations communities in Wisconsin.
Tory is interning with Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network which offers a certification process to assure the “development and marketing of products that conserve threatened wildlife while contributing to the economic vitality of rural communities.” Tory worked in Ecuador setting up camera traps to help identify Andean Bears on land around an alpaca farm.
Kellyn Shoecraft is a second year Masters of Environmental Management student at Duke University, earning a graduate degree with a concentration in Ecosystem Science and Conservation. She grew up in southern New York, and later earned her BA from Hamilton College with a concentration in Biology and Environmental Studies. Following her graduation in 2005, she served two years as an AmeriCorps volunteer: the first at City Year Boston as a first grade literacy tutor and after-school programmer, and the second as at Boston Cares as the Volunteer Coordinator. Following her service, she continued on at Boston Cares as the Program Manager.
Kellyn’s future conservation interests lie in protecting and enhancing urban green spaces to address issues in environmental justice, urban ecosystems, and neighborhood revitalization. While at Duke, she is also pursuing a certificate in non-profit management.
During the summer of 2009, Kellyn will be working at the Duke Law Clinic, primarily researching food policy councils but also genetically modified organisms and farm to school initiatives.
Sara Solis earned a B.A. in Environmental Science from Claremont McKenna College. Her undergraduate work included a semester at James Cook University in Australia and a thesis on the environmental impacts of beef production in the U.S. After graduation, she spent two years as an environmental consultant conducting soil and groundwater remediation in Orange County, California. Currently, Sara is a Master’s candidate specializing in Conservation Planning at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. She is studying the science, economics, and policy involved in effective habitat conservation in the government sector, especially in her native California. During her 2009 summer internship at the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, Sara will analyze wildlife movement and habitat utilization to better understand wildlife behavioral patterns.
For Sara's internship in summer 2009, she will be working at the Irvine Ranch Conservancy in Irvine, California.
Raised on the rocky coast of bucolic Maine, Joshua’s interests and perspectives are rooted in his connection to the coast. In 2005, Joshua received his undergraduate degree from Bates College, culminating in a year-long thesis about perceptions of sustainability within the context of small-scale agriculture. After graduating, eager to spend more time on the water, he worked on a lobster boat. The contrast between academia and commercial fishing reshaped his understanding of coastal conservation and fueled an interest in human/ecosystem interactions. Motivated to experience new perspectives (particularly related to fisheries), Joshua moved to the Northwest to learn more about efforts to conserve stocks of salmon. During his three years on the west coast he worked at a federal fishing hatchery on the Columbia River and then for the USGS where he worked on a project examining the impact of dams on the volitional movement of juvenile salmonid.
Currently a Master’s candidate at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, Joshua hopes to continue to gain insight about regional fisheries and better understand how these fisheries and their associated conservation efforts overlap. He will spend his second summer working on a North Carolina Sea Grant, examining coastal change in the fishing communities of North Carolina’s Down East. After graduation, Joshua hopes to build community capacity in rural fishing communities; working to maintain the viability of our ecological and cultural landscape.
Elizabeth A. Thomas is currently enrolled as a Master of Environmental Science Candidate at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. An avid hiker, Ms. Thomas’s commitment to the environment is greatly inspired by engaging in active experiences in open spaces, and she is committed to expanding low-impact recreation-based land conservation and to building relationships between people and the land through leisurely activities. Ms. Thomas earned a B.A. in Environment, Economics, and Politics from Claremont McKenna College in 2007. Her diverse background has allowed her to research as a natural scientist, economist, and policy scientist, an asset that has broadened her perspective as an environmental practitioner. Prior to attending Yale, Ms. Thomas worked on an economic valuation study of elephant management techniques in Botswana. She also spent three summers in the Eastern Sierra near Yosemite National Park researching restoration methods for fire damaged sites, the ecological effects of recreational trail usage, and changes in range distribution of small mammals, respectively.
Ms. Thomas is currently interning for the Pacific Crest Trail Association researching the economic, social, cultural,, and political relationship between long-distance hiking trail enthusiasts and rural mountain communities.
Meredith Trainor is a Master of Environment Science (M.E.Sc.) candidate at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she is studying community forest management in the Middle Hills region of Nepal. Meredith's research focuses on an assessment of the impact and sustainability of long-term management by community forest user groups (CFUGs) on forest structure and composition, and on the way users experience and understand their participation in community forest management and conservation. An alumna of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY, Trainor double-majored in Environmental Studies and Political Science as an undergraduate, earning a minor in Latin American Studies as part of a study abroad during which she lived in Quito, Ecuador, and Cusco, Peru. She speaks fluent Spanish and ali ali (a little bit) of Nepali, but is working on her Nepali language skills with the support of the Doris Duke Conservation Fellowship. After completion of her Master's research she intends to pursue a position working with one of the large U.S.-based environmental conservation organizations, with the long-term goal of working in environmental NGO management as both a conservation practitioner and nonprofit manager. Meredith originally hails from Glen Rock, NJ, but Alaska's North Slope, Geneva, NY and Washington D.C. also feel like home.
Meredith will be doing her summer research on community forest management in the Middle Hills region of Nepal. She’s coordinating her research with faculty at the Institute of Forestry in Pokhara, Nepal, which is where she’s staying when not in the field.