Allison Anderson joined Conservation Biology Institute in July, 2009 as a Conservation Data Manager. She is a GIS professional specializing in implementing GIS technologies to share and distribute conservation data to practitioners who are doing conservation work on the ground. She is also interested in the nexus of GIS and national environmental law and policy. Allison has over 10 years of progressive GIS experience, managing GIS databases and spatial data. Prior to her work with CBI, she worked with The Nature Conservancy developing a network of Conservation Data Nodes and implementing ESRIs ArcServer technology. Allison’s educational background includes a BS in Applied Biology from Georgia Tech and coursework in Natural Resources Management at Virginia Tech.
Allison currently lives in Seattle, Washington with her family where she is happy to see snow-capped mountains offset by the waters of Puget Sound. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors cycling, hiking, snowshoeing and skiing, or inside cooking, baking and reading.
Nancy has been working at the Conservation Biology Institute since August 1998. She received her M.S. in Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota in 1997 for research focusing on the threatened West Indian Whistling-duck (Dendrocygna arborea) in the Bahamas.
Her current research interests include the use of geographic information systems as a tool for conservation planning, incorporating GIS into science education, and avian conservation issues. In 2012, she completed her Ph.D. in Science Education at Oregon State University.
Gwynne lives in the San Francisco Bay Area of California and has for the past 25 years. Her life-long interest in ecology and biology brought her to the University of California at Santa Cruz for both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. As an undergraduate, Gwynne worked on projects including studies related to the sensory systems and physiology of marine mammals (Northern elephant seals, harbor seals, and California sea lions). Later in her undergraduate career, she worked with Dr. Barry Sinervo, using microsatellite DNA paternity analysis to study the behavioral ecology of side-blotched lizards. Gwynne went on to do her Master’s thesis, which assessed population genetic structure and phylogenetic relationships of populations of the endangered blunt-nosed leopard lizard – endemic to California’s San Joaquin Valley. Gwynne’s goal was to use population genetic analyses to contribute knowledge towards more effective management plans for endangered species.
Gwynne joined the Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) in July of 2010 and works remotely in California. She has worked on quite a variety of projects involving outreach, communication (using social media), research, and editing. Some of the projects Gwynne has contributed to include Data Basin, the Southern Sierra Partnership, and the Bureau of Land Management’s Rapid Ecological Assessment (Colorado Plateau and the Sonoran Desert Regions). She also manages much of the social media piece of communications for CBI. When not working, Gwynne loves hanging out with her two kids and enjoys running and taking classes in pilates, yoga, and dance.
Tara joined Conservation Biology Institute in March of 2010 as a Software Engineer. She brings over 15 years of experience in the software industry with a focus on web applications. Tara has a passion for building intuitive, helpful web applications that run smoothly. She’s currently working on the Data Basin system…doing what she can to make conservation data more available, more understandable, and more manageable for more people.
Mike got his Bachelor of Arts in English from Oregon State University. After becoming a technical writer, he discovered that he enjoyed writing code more than he enjoyed writing documentation. He has spent the last 10 years working with programming languages and databases while designing and maintaining software used internally by credit unions.
Mike is an avid reader, and enjoys hiking and spending time with his family. Mike lives in Corvallis with his wife, Tina, and daughter, Amanda.
Wendy joined the CBI staff as a Soil Scientist/GIS Analyst in July, 2010. She studied Environmental Sciences at Oregon State University, where she worked as a GIS technician in the Crop and Soil Science Dept. In June, 2010, she defended her MS in Soil Science thesis on “Predictive Mapping of Landtype Associations in Three Oregon National Forests,” and in June, 2014, she defended her PhD dissertation on “Using Soil Data to Enhance Modeling of forest responses to climate change. She also has a BA in Dance, which she puts into use in volunteer work with mixed abilities communities.
Dr. Dennis Grossman is a Senior Scientist for the Conservation Biology Institute.
He has worked as a senior scientist for non-profit conservation organizations for the past 20 years, and is a recognized expert in conservation planning, biodiversity assessments, and ecological classification. Dr. Grossman earned his Ph.D. in Plant Ecology from the University of Hawaii in conjunction with the East-West Center . He was awarded M.S. and B.S. degrees in Botany from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Denny has made significant contributions in advancing our understanding of terrestrial, freshwater and coastal/marine ecosystems, and in the application of this knowledge for conservation and resource management. He was instrumental in the development of the classification standards for vegetation, freshwater and coastal/marine ecosystems that are now regularly used for conservation planning and resource management by many U.S. and international organizations. He has also focused on the development and use of appropriate technology to ensure the effective application of current scientific information for improved efficiency and effectiveness of ecological assessments and conservation plans.
Dr. Grossman has developed strong partnerships with scientists, public agencies and private corporations to develop and implement novel approaches to conservation and resource management challenges. He has worked extensively with conservation projects and partners across North and South America, the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands, South Asia and Indonesia. An author of numerous articles and reports, Dr. Grossman serves on several federal and scientific committees.
While serving for 7 years as Vice-President for Science, Dr. Grossman helped to build NatureServe after it was created as a spin off from the Science Division of The Nature Conservancy. During his 12 years in the position of Chief Ecologist, Dr. Grossman successfully integrated ecological concepts to prioritize conservation actions throughout The Nature Conservancy. He currently serves as a Senior Policy Advisor for The Nature Conservancy.
Dominique was born and raised in northern France. She received her Master’s degree in 1978 in Lille (France) and her Ph.D. in 1983 at Colorado State University working on biogeochemical cycles in the shortgrass prairie. In 1984, after a brief 3 months in Thailand teaching a simulation modeling class, she went to U.C. Riverside as a postdoc simulating nitrogen fixing shrubs in the Sonoran desert then went two years later to New Mexico State University to simulate Chihuahuan desert ecosystem processes. She was hired in 1988 as a contractor for the US EPA in Corvallis (OR) to work on climate change impacts on paddy rice ecosystems in Asia. In 1994 she spent a year working in Toulouse (France) simulating Mediterranean ecosystems. In the Fall of 1995, she started working with a USFS team simulating climate change impacts on global terrestrial systems first out of the University of New Hampshire and then out of Corvallis where she also taught at Oregon State University (OSU) as faculty in the Biological and Ecological Engineering Department. In 2000, she moved to Olympia (WA), telecommuting for her work at OSU. In the fall of 2006, she spent 2 months as invited professor in Paris. She worked as director of the Climate Change Science Team for The Nature Conservancy from January 2007 until August 2008. She went back to OSU as associate professor, continuing her simulation work on climate change impacts. In June 2009, she joined the Conservation Biology Institute. In her free time, she bikes and kayaks, hikes, skis and paints watercolors.
Dave joined the climate change research group at CBI in 2010, to continue his work of modeling the effects of climate change on natural vegetation. He had turned to that challenge in 2001 following a long career in industry. After 5 years in the trenches as the computer guy in the U.S. Forest Service MAPSS modeling team on the Oregon State University campus, he returned to graduate school, completing a Ph.D. in Biological and Ecological Engineering in 2009. Using the static biogeography model MAPSS and the dynamic global vegetation model MC1, he has run simulations of potential vegetation and vegetation change for a number of areas, principally in the western U.S. He participated in the California Scenarios 2008 project for the California Energy Commission, in a study of Yosemite National Park for the National Park Service, and in several studies of areas in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and New Mexico for the U.S. Forest Service. His current interests include bringing vegetation models into the Envision modeling framework developed by the BEE department at OSU.
Susan Antenen is the Conservation Biology Institute’s Sierra Nevada Project Coordinator. Susan is helping CBI coordinate its science activities in the Sierra to deliver timely and integrated information and recommendations to public lands managers.
Susan is also the Coordinator for the Southern Sierra Partnership (SSP) comprised of CBI, The Nature Conservancy, Audubon California, Sierra Business Council, and the Sequoia Riverlands Trust. The SSP works towards a vision of healthy vibrant towns surrounded by well-managed natural lands and thriving working farms and ranches.
Before joining the CBI in 2010, Susan worked for The Nature Conservancy for 19 years in a number of capacities. She started the Conservancy’s Mongolia program and grassland protected area initiative. Before that she was the Interim Director of Maui, Hawaii. In New York, she founded and directed one of the Conservancy’s first temperate coastal/estuarine ecosystem restoration programs in US. Susan is a graduate of Goddard College in Vermont.