Research Associates

Michelle Banowetz Research Associate Michelle joins NRCC as a science communicator and editor partnering with the National Park Service for the Natural Resource Condition Assessment program. Michelle retired from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) where she served in a variety of management and public affairs roles, including as Deputy Director, Supervisory Read more...

Ashelee Rasmussen Research Associate Ashelee joins NRCC as a science communicator, educator, illustrator, artist and exhibit designer. She has led education programming at the Idaho Museum of Natural History and teaches such courses as botany and illustration at Idaho State University. Ashelee engages students, educators, and researchers in using illustration as Read more...

Ben Williamson Research Associate Ben Williamson is Project Manager at Mountains and Plains Thriving Communities Collaborative. He has conducted whitebark pine research in Yellowstone National Park, directed an environmental education center with The Glacier Institute, worked on reducing predator-livestock conflicts in northwest Montana, and facilitated a land use dialogue in western Read more...

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...