I am an ecosystem ecologist with interests in conservation and the dynamic relationship between humans and the environment. How do humans change ecological systems, and how do these changes in turn affect human behavior?   What types of ecosystem and landscape management practices enhance environmental quality and human well-being? A bit of personal history: I grew up in Oakland, CA and graduated from Stanford University in 1990 with a B.S. in Biology with a focus in Neuroscience. I became interested in the environment after spending the better part of a year diving in the kelp forests of the Monterey Bay and teaching at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I pursued an Ed.M. degree at Harvard University in 1992, and then completed a Ph.D. in 1998 in Soil and Ecosystem Science at UC Berkeley.  After a post-doc at the University of Colorado, I became a faculty member in the interdisciplinary Environmental Science Program at The Colorado College.  In 2005, I joined the faculty in the School of Life Sciences at ASU.  On a daily basis, I feel lucky to work with talented, curious students and colleagues on important questions related to ecology, conservation and human-environment sustainability.

I will graduate with my B.S. in Conservation Biology & Ecology in May 2019 and my Advanced M.S. Biology degree in 2020. My research focuses on community ecology, wildlife corridor creation, and human-wildlife interactions in southern Arizona and northern Mexico. I use networks of camera traps to assess mammalian diversity and presence over variable landscapes.

During the summer of 2018, I will be embarking on a twelve-week, six-country, global analysis of human-wildlife conflict management at the borders of six National Parks. In my free time I work at the Phoenix Zoo as a Field Conservation Research Assistant with the goal of being in nature as much as possible! 

After finishing up my M.S. degree in Ecology at Utah State University, I will be joining the Hall Lab as a PhD student in Fall 2018. Originally from El Sobrante, California, I graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science & Management from University of California, Davis. My broad interests are in studying where and how best to conserve and restore biologically-diverse ecosystems in landscapes that been experiencing high levels of anthropogenic change, with particular focuses on urbanization and climate change.

As a fellow in the USU Climate Adaptation Science program, my thesis work focuses on mapping climate change exposure and landscape connectivity across various ecoregions of the US Intermountain West, with a focus on prioritizing protected area conservation for the resilience of regional biodiversity. For my dissertation work, I plan to investigate how the structure of urban landscapes broadly shapes how wildlife communities utilize city spaces and how landscape-driven behaviors affect the interactions between wildlife and urban residents. In this research, I aim to collaborate with wildlife managers and landscape planners in order to produce information with direct application toward the conservation and management in a rapidly changing world. Website: jeffreyhaight.weebly.com