Research Associates

Joe Riis Research Associate Joe Riis is an independent photojournalist, filmmaker, and naturalist. Trained as a biologist, Joe has worked as a wildlife storyteller for the past fifteen years. He’s known for his pioneering documentation of animal migrations in the West, through which he aims to give migratory animals a visual Read more...

Jennifer Strona Research Associate Jennifer Strona works with the National Park Service as a science communicator and data-wrangler for the Natural Resource Condition Assessment Program in the Natural Resources, Stewardship, and Science directorate. Jennifer assists with web page production, illustration, and editing technical reports covering a wide variety of natural resource Read more...

Aaron Bott Research Associate Aaron Bott is a biologist and a doctoral student at Utah State University studying wolves across the American West — predicting spatial and behavioral patterns on an anthropocentric landscape to promote human-carnivore coexistence. Additionally, Aaron works with the Yellowstone Wolf Project, monitoring wolves' spatial persistence and reproduction Read more...

Teresa Lorenz Research Associate Teresa Lorenz is an ecologist and natural resource professional, currently conducting research on Clark’s nutcracker and whitebark pine with Dr. Taza Schaming. She recently completed a post-doc with the U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, where she researched cavity nesting birds and worked with the threatened Read more...

Patty Valentine-Darby Research Associate Patty Valentine-Darby joined NRCC in the summer of 2021. She is working with the National Park Service as a science communicator and writer-editor with the Natural Resource Condition Assessment Program and the Chihuahuan Desert Network Inventory and Monitoring Program. Patty has worked on science communication products and Read more...

Nancy Bockino Research Associate Nancy Bockino began working as a field ecologist studying bird, lynx, fox, wolves and whitebark pine in the early 1990’s. This love of whitebark pine has grown into two decades of dedicated work in partnership with Grand Teton National Park. The program includes the conservation of seed Read more...

Trevor Bloom Research Associate Trevor Bloom is a Community Ecologist with The Nature Conservancy. He’s collaborating with NRCC Research Associate Corinna Riginos to build on the work of Frank C. Craighead Jr. to better understand how plants and wildlife are responding to climate change in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The documentary Read more...

Timothy Terway Research Associate Timothy Terway is a policy scientist whose research examines the ways in which people create meaning and how human viewpoints shape environmental issues. He is particularly interested in the role of epistemology in change. Tim also has a strong background in city planning and landscape architecture; he Read more...

Timmothy Kaminski Research Associate Timmothy Kaminski is the founder and principal investigator for the Mountain Livestock Cooperative, a non-profit conservation initiative that combines a knowledge of traditional ranching with a scientific understanding of carnivore-livestock interactions to reduce conflict. Timmothy’s work focuses on helping ranchers to employ grazing and husbandry practices that Read more...

Taza Schaming Research Associate Taza Schaming studies the stability and resilience of the Clark’s nutcracker-whitebark pine mutualism to help ensure persistence of this species and their seed dispersal function. Since 2009, she has worked in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, trapping, surveying, radio-tracking, satellite-tracking, and monitoring nests, to study movement, habitat use Read more...

Tani Hubbard Research Associate Tani Hubbard works as a science communicator for National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring networks in the Greater Yellowstone Area, Northern Great Plains, Heartland, and Chihuahuan Desert. She is involved in a wide variety of science and conservation communication products based on the work of network ecologists Read more...

Susan Patla Research Associate Susan Patla was a non-game biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for over 20 years based out of Jackson, WY.  Her work involved habitat restoration and monitoring for a wide range of avian species including Trumpeter Swans, Bald Eagles, loons, curlews, and Peregrine Falcons. In Read more...

Susan Marsh Research Associate Susan Marsh lives in Jackson, Wyoming. She worked for the U.S. Forest Service for over thirty years, retiring in 2010. Her essays have appeared in journals that include Orion, North American Review, and Fourth Genre, and in many anthologies. Her books include the award-winning novel War Creek Read more...

Steve Primm Research Associate Steve Primm has nearly two decades of experience working with grizzly bears and is founding partner of People & Carnivores, a non-profit organization that connects people, ideas and resources to advance rangeland stewardship and carnivore conservation in the American West.  He has served with several working groups Read more...

Seth Wilson Research Associate Seth Wilson is the Executive Director of the Blackfoot Challenge, a leading collaborative conservation NGO based in Montana. Seth is a long-time NRCC Research Associate going back to 2003. He is also the Chair of Montana Livestock Loss Board. He grew up in West Cornwall, CT and Read more...

Ruth Shea Research Associate Ruth Shea has worked for 40 years in Trumpeter Swan restoration, research and management. She’s now working to create a new initiative that will ensure the comprehensive long-term management of these beautiful birds. She and fellow wildlife biologist, Drew Reed, have created the Northern Rockies Trumpeter Swan Read more...

Richard Reading Research Associate Richard Reading is the Director for Research and Conservation at Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, CO and Executive Director of the Coalition for International Conservation. Rich has conducted or overseen projects on six continents, working primarily on grassland and arid ecosystems. His work focuses on developing pragmatic, effective, Read more...

Rebecca Watters Research Associate Rebecca Watters is the executive director of the Wolverine Foundation and the founder of the Mongolian Wolverine Project. She’s a wildlife biologist and social scientist who works at the intersection of culture, human rights and conservation. Her work has taken her to numerous countries, most recently Mongolia, Read more...

Pamela Reading Research Associate Pamela Reading has dedicated her career to promoting conservation ideals across public and private lands. She currently works at LSA Associates, an environmental consulting firm where her projects involve groundwater sustainability and jaguar conservation.  She previously spent nine years at the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, where she Read more...

Nicole Mazur Research Associate Nicole Mazur works in the Social Sciences Programme at the Bureau of Rural Sciences in Canberra, Australia. Her research focuses on sustainability and productivity in rural Australian industries, included marine and coastal aquaculture, and inland agriculture. Her work has a variety of applications, from establishing environmental indicators, Read more...

Murray Rutherford Research Associate Murray Rutherford serves as an Associate Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning at the School of Resource & Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. His research focuses on natural resource policy and he is particularly interested in how human values shape our relationships Read more...

Molly Loomis Tyson Research Associate Molly Loomis Tyson has lived in the Tetons, as a writer, teacher, and climbing ranger since 2001. Molly’s areas of interest are problem solving, conflict resolution, communication and education as it pertains to human-wildlife conflict and public land management. She is also passionate about using connection Read more...

Mimi Kessler Research Associate Mimi Kessler directs the Eurasian Bustard Alliance and serves as the IUCN Bustard Species Specialist Group’s North Eurasian Bustard Coordinator and Councillor to the Convention on Migratory Species. Mimi takes a community-based approach to conservation science, involving local people at multiple levels of research and building conservation Read more...

Mike Tercek Research Associate Mike Tercek is the founder of Walking Shadow Ecology, a scientific consulting company based in Gardiner, Montana. In the past, his projects focused on landscape-level plant ecology, rare plant species, and trophic cascades. His recent work includes forecasts of climate change impacts, big data problems, and data Read more...

Michael Whitfield Research Associate Michael Whitfield has been conducting field research in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for more than 30 years. His long-term monitoring of Bald Eagle populations has contributed significantly to a larger understanding of how at-risk populations recover. Mike also serves as the coordinator for the Heart of the Read more...

Michael Gibeau Research Associate Mike Gibeau works with the Southern Alberta Land Trust where he is the Conservation Manager. Work includes evaluating potential properties for their biodiversity value, negotiating the terms of conservation easements, and monitoring existing easements. He also maintains landowner relations and stewardship activities on a number of ranches Read more...

Matt Barnes Research Associate Matt Barnes is an integralist, collecting and synthesizing ideas. An explorer where the rivers flow from the Land of Shining Mountains to the Great American Desert. A ranger without a park, a rancher without a ranch, a scientist outside of the academy; a cultivator of wildness in Read more...

Lydia Dixon Lawhon Research Associate Lydia Dixon Lawhon received a Master’s degree from the Yale School of the Environment and a PhD from the University of Colorado—Boulder. Her work focuses on Wyoming’s wolf management policy. In particular, she works to understand why decisions based on the Endangered Species Act are persistently Read more...

Leonard Carlman Research Associate Len Carlman has been rooted in Jackson Hole, Wyoming since 1978, with ties to NRCC stretching back to its founding days in 1987. He is a licensed attorney, an outdoor guide, past non-profit executive director, experienced volunteer board leader, and active community leader. His project focus is Read more...

Kimberly Byrd Research Associate Kimberly Byrd is widely known for her use of Q methodology in understanding how individual viewpoints contribute to complex conservation issues. She earned her doctorate from the University of Minnesota for her work with wolves and continues to serve as a lecturer in the University’s Sustainability Education Read more...

Jesse Bryant Research Associate Jesse Bryant is a field instructor for NOLS, the co-creator of Yonder Lies podcast, and a PhD student at the Yale School of the Environment. His Masters work was in the small Wyoming town of Ten Sleep where he took an integrated approach to understand the origins Read more...

Jason Wilmot Research Associate Jason Wilmot is a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service’s Bridger Teton National Forest where he specializes in human-wildlife coexistence and carnivore conservation, especially the elusive wolverine. Jason has lived and worked in many of America’s most remote wilderness areas, helping to create stewardship and management Read more...

Hilary Byerly Research Associate Hilary Byerly is a behavioral economist who studies how people manage the natural environment, especially providing public benefits, like biodiversity and risk mitigation, from private lands. She is currently a postdoc at the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado. Hilary earned a Ph.D. from Read more...

Hannah Jaicks Research Associate Hannah Jaicks is an interdisciplinary scientist working with communities throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. She is currently the Program Director for Future West in Bozeman, MT. Her background in environmental psychology allows her to develop stronger avenues of communication and inclusion amongst the public, decision makers and Read more...

Gloria Flora Research Associate Gloria Flora worked for twenty-two years with the U.S. Forest Service, serving in numerous posts, including Forest Supervisor for both the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana and the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada. Her current research involves increasing forest sustainability through the use of biochar. Read more...

Gao Yufang Research Associate Gao Yufang is the Executive Director of the Everest Snow Leopard Conservation Center, based in Tibet, where he works to promote human-wildlife coexistence through research, conservation, public engagement and developing future conservation leaders. Yufang also works to prevent the illegal harvest and trade of wildlife, including African Read more...

Erin Muths Research Associate Erin Muths is a zoologist with the U.S. Geological Survey whose work focuses on host-pathogen dynamics and changes in amphibian populations. The goal of her research is to generate detailed data on amphibian assemblages and to better understand the impact of mitigation efforts on amphibian conservation. She Read more...

Eric Atkinson Research Associate Eric Atkinson has over thirty-five years of experience in field-based conservation and ecology. He earned an MS from Boise State University working with raptors and shrikes, and now is amidst his doctoral work at the University of Wyoming. Simultaneously, Eric teaches across the Biology discipline coordinating that Read more...

Elizabeth Deliso Research Associate Elizabeth Deliso has worked on a variety of policy issues, from implementing sustainability programs to improving educational outcomes. Her extensive field work in the Central American cloud forests helped set larger biodiversity and conservation goals for the region. She earned a Master’s degree from the Yale School Read more...

Drew Reed Research Associate Drew Reed is a wildlife biologist, who works to restore wetlands by relocating beavers to forest drainages where they can improve stream function and increase habitat quality for other species, including Trumpeter Swans. He is involved in several collaborative projects that examine beaver activity and how beavers Read more...

Doug Clark Research Associate Doug Clark is the Centennial Chair and Assistant Professor for the School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan.  His research examines the effect of environmental change on governance and policy in North America. He also develops non-invasive methods for monitoring human-wildlife interactions and is Read more...

Debra Patla Research Associate Debra Patla is the Field Coordinator for the Cooperative Amphibian Monitoring Project in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, a project sponsored by the National Park Service and the USGS. The project was developed in response to a global decline in amphibians that was first noticed in the 1990s. Read more...

David Mattson Research Associate David Mattson has spent over fourty years studying large carnivores, with a focus on the social, political, and organizational dynamics that shape the policies and practices of conservation programs. His long career with the U.S. Geological Survey included positions as Research Biologist, Leader of the Colorado Plateau Read more...

Corinna Riginos Research Associate Corinna Riginos is the Wyoming Director of Science for The Nature Conservancy. Her work at TNC centers on reducing the impacts of roads on big game movements and migrations and developing innovative strategies for sagebrush ecosystem restoration. Corinna uses field research to test the effectiveness of measures Read more...

Clay Nielsen Research Associate Clay Nielsen conducts research in several areas of wildlife ecology and conservation including jaguar occupancy in Panama and Brazil, the expansion of large carnivores in the Midwestern U.S., the ecology of river otters and striped skunks in southern Illinois, the use of habitat by restored bison herds Read more...

Christine Paige Research Associate Christine Paige is the founder and principal of Ravenworks Ecology, a conservation consulting firm that produces practical solutions and public outreach for projects in the Greater Yellowstone region as well as internationally. She recently collaborated with the Sage Grouse Initiative to put the latest conservation science into Read more...

Christina Cromley Bruner Research Associate Christina Cromley Bruner is the Director of the Strategy Management Office at the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of the Interior.  Her work focuses on reducing conflict in natural resource management. Christina has published extensively, including the Harold D. Lasswell Prize winning book, Finding Read more...

Charles Peterson Research Associate Charles Peterson currently teaches at Idaho State University, where he specializes in herpetology and the application of GIS in ecological monitoring. His research focuses on the ecology and conservation of reptiles and amphibians, as well as developing new methods for surveying sensitive populations.

Carlos López González Research Associate Carlos López González has worked with large carnivores—including jaguars, cougars, bears and wolves—for almost 20 years. He serves as the co-leader of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Jaguar Recovery Team and is a member of the Ocelot and Mexican Wolf recovery teams as well. He Read more...

Blake Hossack Research Associate Blake Hossack is a U.S. Geological Survey Research Zoologist. His research examines how biological communities respond to environmental change and involves long-term monitoring of amphibian populations in the Rocky Mountains and areas of the desert Southwest.  He earned his doctorate at the University of Montana. Read more...