Communications Coordinator

Transcription

1 Appalachian LCC Staff Jean Brennan Coordinator & Chief Scientist Dr. Jean Brennan is the Coordinator and Chief Scientist for the Appalachian LCC. As an ecologist she has worked extensively internationally, conducting research on primates in Kenya; carnivores on Madagascar; Asian elephants and other endangered large mammals on Peninsula Malaysia; and orangutans and proboscis monkeys on Borneo, Indonesia. She holds graduate degrees in Population Biology and Genetics from the University of Tennessee; Forest Ecology from Yale University School of Forestry; and Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. Matthew Cimitile Before joining the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Jean worked as a Senior Climate Change Scientist, most recently with a DC-based environmental NGO, and previously as a Senior Conservation Scientist for the U.S. Agency for International Development. Jean also served as a staff scientist for the U.S. State Department, Office of Global Change. Her work as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) earned her recognition and she was selected by the IPCC to share the honor as Nobel Laureate for her contributions to the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Her current interests focus on synthetic research into the impacts of climate change on natural systems and adaptation strategies -- landscape-level conservation being the greatest adaptation strategy possible. Communications Coordinator Matthew Cimitile has been the Communications Coordinator for the Appalachian LCC and the Appalachian Mountains Joint Venture for the past four years. In this role, he coordinates outreach strategies including messaging, highlevel briefings, and delivery of communication products for conservation initiatives to congressional, industry, and natural resource audiences; creates annual reports, brochures, e-newsletters, and fact sheets for internal and external communications; and develops online content and managed websites and social media pages. Prior to this, Matt worked for the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center as a writer and

2 multimedia specialist where he helped develop a video podcast series that went on to win a USGS Shoemaker Award in audio and visual communications. Matthew earned a bachelor s degree at the University of Tampa and a master s in environmental journalism at Michigan State University. Jessica Rhodes Jessica_rhodes@fws.gov GIS Analyst and Information Manager Jessica Rhodes is a Fish and Wildlife Biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a joint position with the Appalachian LCC and the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program. She began her tenure in 2002 as a student in the Student Career Experience Program (SCEP) for the Pennsylvania Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service while obtaining her bachelor s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University. Upon graduation in 2004, she continued to work for the Pennsylvania Field Office in the Conservation Planning Assistance Program. In 2005, Jessica transferred to the Virginia Ecological Services Office in Gloucester, Virginia as a Fish and Wildlife Biologist in the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program. Jessica joined the Appalachian LCC team in her current position in December of She works on habitat restoration projects throughout Virginia, conducts GIS analysis for strategic planning and prioritization activities, manages the Virginia Field Office website, and provides IT support for the Virginia Field Office. She completed her master s degree in Geographic Information System from The Pennsylvania State University in 2013 and continues to develop and refine her GIS skills.

3 Appalachian LCC Adjunct Staff Ginny Kreitler Outreach Coordinator Ginny Kreitler comes to the LCC as its new Outreach Coordinator for the northern LCC region after serving on the LCC s Steering Committee for two years. Her prior involvement with the Steering Committee and LCC working groups (one advising on the energy impacts project and one considering the use of indicator species) has enabled her to quickly move in to her new role, in which she is helping foster collaboration with conservation practitioners in the northern extent of the LCC, specifically in the states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, and Virginia. Previously, Ginny worked for National Audubon, serving on an internal climate change working group, contributing to strategy development on forest priorities, and working with Argonne National Lab to bring habitat data in to new planning tools for the electric and gas sectors. In Pennsylvania, she is a long-time partner in the state land trust community, and partner with watershed protection groups for the last seven years. She now operates a consulting practice from which she continues to provide services to this community. Mary Davis Aquatic Ecologist Dr. Davis is an ecosystem ecologist with technical expertise in aquatic habitats of the southeastern U.S. Her professional services include scientific and outreach resources for project management, coalition development, and strategic planning. Mary s areas of scientific interest focus on natural hydrologic regimes of freshwater aquatic habitats and include instream flow requirements and riverine ecosystem functions. mary@triad-env.com She serves as the Coordinator of the Southern Instream Flow Network for the Southeastern Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP). As an aquatic ecologist with SARP, Mary has worked extensively with the South Atlantic, Gulf Coast Prairie, and Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks LCCs on development of regional geospatial resources and models to support instream flow standards and development of aquatic conservation plans. Mary directed the Southern Freshwater

4 Appalachian LCC Collaborative Research Associates Paul Leonard Program for eight years for the Southern US Conservation Region of The Nature Conservancy. Mary earned her Master s of Science in fire ecology from Florida State University and doctorate in wetland ecology from the University of Florida. Clemson University, Conservation Biologist As a Postdoctoral research fellow at Clemson University, Paul works with the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative on interactive conservation planning. This work will inform a landscape-level design for state, federal, and NGO partners to place their ongoing and future conservation efforts into a regional context. pbleona@clemson.edu Lars Pomara lazarusypomara@fs.fed.us Prior to this current role, Paul was a STEP employee while he earned his PhD in wildlife and fisheries biology at Clemson University. During his M.S. degree, Paul developed methods to detect small, isolated wetlands using high-resolution LiDAR data in managed forests. His current research interests include habitat connectivity, mapping gene flow, and using supercomputing to speedup conservation planning. U.S. Forest Service, Ecologist Lars Pomara joined the Eastern Threat Center as an ecologist in June Lars is a spatial ecologist with research interests in the biogeography, landscape ecology, and conservation of temperate and tropical forest ecosystems. His current research involves working with the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative to synthesize existing research on threats to ecosystem services and biodiversity across Appalachian landscapes and ecosystems, and developing new strategies and tools to address future vulnerabilities in a coherent planning framework. Lars worked most recently as a postdoctoral research associate in Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he developed climate change vulnerability assessments for wildlife species of conservation concern, in collaboration with the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes Landscape Conservation Cooperative. He also served for two years as a lecturer and

5 research associate in Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas at Austin. He holds a PhD in Geography and the Environment from UT Austin and an MS in wildlife ecology from the University of Georgia in Athens. Appalachian LCC Landscape Conservation Fellow Gillian Bee Clemson University, Conservation Fellow Gillian is the Appalachian LCC new Landscape Conservation Fellow, stationed at Clemson University. Prior to her new role, Gillian was the Stewardship Director for the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. She has spent many seasons working on avian-related projects throughout the U.S., with the high-desert flora, fauna and local culture being her favorite. She is passionate about building relationships that encourage proactive conservation for wildlife and rural culture. Gillian received her bachelor s in wildlife biology from the University of Vermont and her master s in wildlife biology from Clemson University. She has worked as a private lands biologist in western South Dakota and southeast Montana to conserve the Greater Sage-Grouse.