Who We Are

Michael Parker, Ph.D.
Southern Oregon University
Dr. Parker is an aquatic ecologist whose research focuses on effects of disturbance on stream communities and ecosystem processes and factors regulating the distribution and impacts of non-native species.  He currently is involved in efforts to conserve and restore desert spring systems and monitor native amphibian populations.

Dennis Odion, Ph.D.
University of California – Santa Barbara
Dr. Odion is a vegetation ecologist who specializes in fire and community and landscape ecology.  His current work involves the study of landscape scale fire patterns and their causes in the Sierra Nevada and Klamath-Siskiyou regions, and the effects of fire on the susceptibility of vegetation to Sudden Oak Death.

Reed Noss, Ph.D.
University of Central Florida
Dr. Noss applies conservation biology principles to real-world problems in land conservation.  His primary interest is regional conservation planning — the application of science to conservation planning and management at a regional scale — focusing on long-term maintenance of biodiversity over centuries and millennia.

Steve Jessup, Ph.D.
Southern Oregon University
Dr. Jessup has been researching the origins and distributions of vascular plants, lichens, and terrestrial bryophytes in alpine and coastal headland environments for 15 years.  This research provides unique perspectives on conservation of naturally rare species and climate change monitoring.

Wayne Minshall, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor
Idaho State University
Dr. Minshall is an internationally recognized expert on the ecology of flowing waters.  His research interests emphasize aquatic benthic invertebrates, community dynamics, and stream ecosystem structure and function.  For the past 20 years he has been conducting research on the long-term effects of wildfires on stream ecosystems.

James Karr, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor
University of Washington
Dr. Karr has taught and done research in tropical forest ecology, ornithology, stream ecology, watershed management, landscape ecology, conservation biology, ecological health, and science and environmental policy, and developed the index of biotic integrity (IBI) to directly evaluate the effects of human actions on the health of living systems.

Richard Hutto, Ph.D.
University of Montana
Dr. Hutto has conducted research on migratory landbirds in Mexico in winter, the Southwest during spring and fall, and in the Northern Rockies in summer for more than 30 years.  He developed and continues to supervise the USFS Northern Region Landbird Monitoring Program, and he has been studying the ecological effects of fire on bird communities for 20 years.

Mark Harmon, Ph.D.
Oregon State University
Dr. Harmon is the Richardson Chair and Professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University. He is also Co-Director of the Cooperative Chemistry Analytical Laboratory. He earned  his Ph.D. in Botany and Plant Pathology at OSU in 1986, then moved to the Department of Forest Science. Dr. Harmon has done research on numerous projects, including the development of methods and models for estimating the stores and fluxes of carbon from forest lands in the Pacific Northwest region.

Thomas Hardy, Ph.D.
Utah State University
Dr. Hardy’s intersecting interests in hydraulic engineering and aquatic biology have led to the development and application of models that provide water resources management guidance.  Over a 25-year career, Dr. Hardy has used these models to project the effects of water allocation activities on stream habitat for fishes, other riverine animals, and recreational values.

Healy Hamilton, Ph.D.
Dr. Hamilton is a Senior Research Associate at Sound Science in the Bay Area, with a research focus on biodiversity and ecological forecasting. Her lab integrates spatial data on biodiversity, environment, and climate from both models and observations to understand biological response to global change. The Hamilton lab collaborates with a wide range of conservation organizations and government agencies, providing science in support of adaptation planning in the U.S. and around the globe. Dr. Hamilton is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, a Senior Research Fellow at the Marine Conservation Institute, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Geography at San Francisco State University. Dr. Hamilton received her masters degree from Yale University and her doctorate in Integrative Biology from the University of California at Berkeley. She is a former U.S. Fulbright Fellow and a Switzer Foundation Environmental Leadership Grantee.