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 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 to get more experience in education, and then completed a Ph.D. in Ecosystem Science at UC Berkeley. After a brief post-doc, 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.

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

I graduated with my M.S. degree in Ecosystem Science and Management from Texas A & M University in December 2014. My research focused on the effects of grazing management and the seasonality of prescribed fire on invasive grass growth and establishment. I also contributed to an international research project that evaluated the influence of prescribed fire and grazing on the abundance of a native encroaching shrub species in the Limpopo province of South Africa. I hope to continue developing research questions that assess the efficacy of management techniques on controlling invasive species and forecast the effects of plant invasions on community diversity and productivity. My other research interests include social-ecological resilience to disturbance or invasion, threats to biodiversity (regional and global), land manager perceptions of invasive species, and ecological restoration.

I graduated in 2017 from the University of Nevada, Reno with a B.S in Biology. After graduating I explored my love for biology and wildlife by completing an AmeriCorps term teaching underserved youth environmental science lessons. I also spent time as a biology instructor at my local community colleges, further developing a passion for biology and teaching. I will now be pursuing my M.S. in Biology in the hall lab. I am interested in understanding urbanization and the effect this has on wildlife. I am also interested in an interdisciplinary approach that investigates how socio-economic status influences human opinions of wildlife, wildlife interactions in urban areas, as well as population changes to wildlife. I want my research to inform future urbanization  practices, as well as bridge the gap between ecological and human issues.

I graduated from Harvey Mudd College in 2013 with a BS in Mathematical and Computational Biology and joined the Hall lab in 2015 to pursue my interests in urban systems and the links between social and ecological processes. In the meantime, I worked at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA, where I worked with grassland restoration projects and explored the diversity of residential lawn plant communities with the Ecological Homogenization of Urban America project. My dissertation work will focus on how urban and urban-influenced landscapes are changing over time, with a particular focus on residential plant communities. I am currently repeating a paired social and ecological survey of residential yard vegetation originally conducted in 2008 by a former Hall Lab student to measure how and why yards plant communities have changed over time (see more here: https://mmwheeler.github.io/phx_yard_change).

My name is Jeffrey Brown and I am currently a Post-Doctoral Research Associate working with CAP LTER (Central Arizona Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research Program). As a post-doc I am working alongside Sharon Hall, Kelli Larson, Heather Bateman, Susannah Lerhman, and Paige Warren to investigate how parks and green spaces influence urban wildlife as well as peoples’ perceptions of urban wildlife.

Broadly speaking, I consider myself an urban ecologist and conservation biology. The goal of my research is to promote biodiversity within urban landscapes through greater understanding of how species are distributed developed areas and how urbanization shapes wildlife communities. My work has investigated how the surrounding landscape and size of protected forests impacts bird communities within forests as well as how the communities in a protected area change as the landscape around them changes. I am also interested in understanding how factors such as supplemental food sources and light pollution shape avian and arthropod communities. Through my research, I hope to highlight how biodiversity is influenced by developing landscapes and the different ways biodiversity may present itself to people visiting the landscapes.

In addition to my research, I am passionate about both teaching and the promotion of diversity within the STEM fields. I believe that the first step in increasing diversity with STEM fields starts with increasing engagement. My goal is to teach and develop lessons that reach a wide variety of backgrounds and that allow students to contribute their own experiences to the design of the course. Once students realize the potential opportunities STEM fields present, I make it a priority to connect interested students with research experiences working with myself or other collaborators.

Visit my website here.