Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala is President and Chief Scientist of the Geos Institute in Ashland, Oregon and President of the Society for Conservation Biology, North America Section. He is an internationally renowned author of over 150 technical papers, including the award winning “Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World” (www.islandpress.org/dellasala). Dominick has given plenary and keynote talks ranging from academic conferences to the United Nations (Earth Summit II). He has appeared in National Geographic, Science Digest, Science Magazine, Time Magazine, Audubon Magazine, National Wildlife Magazine, High Country News, Terrain Magazine, NY Times, LA Times, USA Today, Jim Lehrer News Hour, CNN, MSNBC, “Living on Earth (NPR),” and several PBS documentaries. He has testified in congressional hearings in defense of the Endangered Species Act, roadless area conservation, national monument designations, forest protections, and climate change among others. For his efforts to help foster national roadless areas conservation and support designation of new national monuments, he received conservation leadership awards from the World Wildlife Fund in 2000 and 2004, the Wilburforce Foundation in 2006, and was twice nominated for conservation awards for his work as a whistleblower while on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service spotted owl recovery team. His rainforest book received an academic excellence award in 2012 from Choice magazine, one of the nation’s premier book review journals. Dominick co-founded the Geos Institute in July 2006. He is motivated by leaving a living planet for his daughter and all those that follow.
John Waugh is an adviser on conservation strategies and planning, with a focus on the role of information in conservation policy, and on sustainable finance mechanisms. He has been involved in protected area management for 30 years, as a park ranger, manager, planner, and strategist. He is the author of several publications on invasive species and a contributor to several on protected areas, all with IUCN. After 20 years with IUCN, he is working for Integra LCC based in Washington, DC. His current interests include risk assessment, eco-informatics, climate adaptation strategies, sustainable finance mechanisms, and learning networks for conservation. He lives in the Virginia Piedmont hunt country, where he has not yet succeeded in mediating between foxes and hounds.
William (Bill) Ripple is a University Distinguished Professor of Ecology in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society as well as the Director of the “Trophic Cascades Program” at Oregon State University. He has published more than 200 journal articles and was co-lead author of the “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency 2021”. He is the director of the Alliance of World Scientists which has 26,000 members from 180 countries.
Hannah joined Conservation Biology Institute in January 2020 and primarily contributes to a project assessing and mapping grassland dynamics within the USDA Conservation Reserve Program. With a M.S. in Geography from Oregon State University and a B.S in Geography and Geographic Information Science/Cartography from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Hannah is excited to extend her geospatial analysis skills with Google Earth Engine and random forest modeling to contribute to geospatial mapping and analysis efforts at CBI using open-source tools and data.
After completing her Bachelor’s degree, she made maps for a transportation engineering firm, a self-driving car company, and participated in the NASA DEVELOP Program to study estuarine vegetation patterns in the Bay Area. While completing her Master’s degree, Hannah worked on the NASA-funded Missing Millions project with which she studied satellite image time series analysis and disturbance detection algorithms to analyse establishment and growth trends of refugee settlements in Northern Uganda. Hannah’s interest in using satellite image analysis for land cover change couples with her passion for studying people and environment dynamics, and human migration and development. With a curiosity for studying the power of maps, old and new, Hannah plans to continue studying satellite imagery through a critical geographic lens.
Hannah lives in Corvallis and spends her free time trail running with her partner and dog in the McDonald-Dunn forest, cooking, seeing live music and exploring new places in Oregon.
Charlotte is interested in harnessing spatial data, remote sensing, and data science tools to answer questions concerning conservation to improve conservation outcomes and human wellbeing. Charlotte earned an M.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she investigated the role of High Conservation Value areas in reducing deforestation within oil palm landscapes in Indonesia. Before joining CBI, Charlotte worked on a variety of remote sensing, climate science, and conservation impact analysis projects ranging from validating MODIS and VIIRS vegetation indices to developing a deforestation alert monitoring framework in Google Earth Engine. Having experienced some of the remaining wild places left on earth like the Bornean rainforests, and America’s temperate forests in which she was raised, Charlotte feels an ardent need to support conservation efforts. Charlotte lives in Honolulu, HI, with her many house plants, and enjoys being outside in nature whether surfing, hiking, or free diving.
Jesudas (Jess) Joseph joined CBI in August 2021 as a software engineer and will be responsible for IT administration. He was born in Corvallis, Oregon, but moved to Bangalore, India, at the age of one. After living in India for 16 years, Jess and his family moved back to Corvallis. Jess graduated from Oregon State University in June 2021 with a major in computer science. He enjoys spending his time outside hiking, taking photos, and running sound and other tech at his church.
As the Systems Administrator for Conservation Biology Institute, Robert brings 14 years of GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac administration and interoperability to CBI in a relentless quest to be a prime enabler.
His experience encompasses various forms of Systems Adminsistration and support of GNU/Linux, Mac and Windows based computing environments. This has ranged from the server side to the desktop with both custom and off the shelf software and hardware solutions.
Taylor is an Eastern Oregon native and has been interested in mathematics and computers since a young age. While at college, he studied computational geometry, topology, probability and computer graphics, as well as mathematical fundamentals of cryptography. He has since blended those interests by integrating computer graphics and the web with data visualization and environmental science, developing desktop- and web-based software to assist scientists in leveraging their data.
Annie joined the CBI team in July of 2016. She has a B.S. in Environmental Science with a minor in Environmental Law and Policy from Oregon State University and a graduate certificate in GIS from Penn State University. While working as an intern under environmental lawyers with the intention of becoming one herself, Annie recognized the power of data and spatial analysis in the conservation planning field and changed course to a career in geospatial sciences. She is particularly interested in the management of water resources and sustainable city planning. Prior to joining CBI, Annie worked as an assistant data manager for the National Park Service’s Sonoran Desert Network, developing databases and performing data analysis for the network’s birds, groundwater, springs, and streams protocols.
Annie is a native of Santa Barbara, CA and currently resides in Corvallis, Oregon. She spends her free time rock climbing, hiking, baking, and traveling.
Dr. Thompson’s background includes a blend of landscape and wildlife ecology, specializing in the relationship between large-scale habitat change and the interactions between predators, competitors, and prey. He has worked with a wide variety of sensitive carnivore species, including black-footed ferrets, island fox, swift fox, bald eagles, and mountain lions in numerous western states. He has served as a technical advisor for wildlife-related issues to numerous organizations and efforts, including the Dinkey Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project in the Sierras, the Blackfoot-Swan Landscape Restoration Project in northern Montana, and the California Academy of Sciences. Currently, he lives in Missoula, MT and is applying this background to the development of resiliency-based forest management regimes in both the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountain regions.