Lisa Alley joined CBI as an Administrative Assistant in May 2014. She is new to the conservation community, but has spent the last 15 years providing back office support for an organization that provided software used internally within credit unions. She is an incredible asset to CBI, providing support and assisting with deadlines. During her free time she enjoys scrapbooking, camping throughout Oregon and spending time with her wonderful husband, beautiful daughter and equally beautiful son-in-law.

Barry received a Ph.D. from Colorado State University in 1991 where his research focused on the effects of climate change on grassland/livestock ecosystems.  Since then, he has worked in Argentina, China, Mongolia, and the US for the United Nations’ Development and Environmental Programmes, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Country Studies Program, and more recently The Nature Conservancy. His research interests include bioclimatology, biogeography, and the influence of climatic variability on the distribution and conservation of plants and animals in grassland and alpine ecosystems.

Justin Brice is a Geospatial Analyst with professional experience applying spatial analysis to help conserve natural landscapes and working lands. He has lived agriculture experience growing up in California’s Central Valley on the family walnut farm and holds a B.S. in Wildlife Conservation and minor in Geospatial Sciences from Humboldt State University. With his background in agriculture, wildlife field sampling/surveying work, species distribution, and connectivity modeling, Justin is focused on conserving habitat cores and agricultural lands that act as corridors to allow for wildlife movements. To that end, his recent focus is at the intersection of renewable energy development, protection of valuable farmland, and wildlife conservation as the world races to address our global climate crisis. Collaborative decision support systems will be needed now more than ever so that our decision-makers can have access to a transparent process that allows for scenario planning to make informed decisions using the best available science. Justin is the project manager on several projects involved with the co-production of spatial decision support systems (SDSS) with clients to inform and support decision makers.

Areas of general expertise (other than Geographic Information Systems) include:

Dustin Pearce joined the Conservation Biology Institute in December of 2015. His background in geospatial sciences has focused on the interplay of working agricultural lands, natural lands, and renewable energy development in the San Joaquin Valley of California. Growing up in the San Joaquin Valley, his connection with agricultural and working lands initiated his interest in biology. Watching the seasonal shifts in crops and the wildlife that surrounded the valley all developed his curiosity for the natural world that still drives him today. Finding just as much comfort in plowed fields as the backcountry of the Sierra Nevada, his upbringing has helped him understand the truly complex nature of humans’ interaction with different landscapes.

Dustin holds a M.E.S.M. in Economics and Politics of the Environment from the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, and a B.S. in Conservation Biology from Arizona State University. His work with the Conservation Biology Institute is focused on stakeholder engagement and smart planning for renewable energy development throughout California.

Dustin lives and works remotely in Santa Barbara, California. He enjoys getting outside as much as possible, woodworking, metalworking, and exploring paved roads on his motorcycle.

 

Melanie Brown joined the Conservation Biology Institute in July of 2015. She has a B.S. in Natural Resource Management with a focus on science and research from Oregon State University (OSU), and an A.A.S. in Water Conservation from Lane Community College (LCC). Melanie is originally from Rhode Island and moved to Oregon in 2008. She has a broad interest in conservation issues including how climate change and invasive species effect land management, and how sustainability and urban ecology affect natural resources. Her background includes a diverse mix of conservation, horticulture, and marketing. As an undergraduate she conducted research alongside her mentor Dr. Dominqiue Bachelet about how Oregon and Idaho Bureau of Land Management (BLM) managers perceive the usefulness of web-based climate tools for sagebrush management. Prior to attending OSU Melanie worked for ten years in various horticulture and vegetation management positions that include assisting in silviculture field studies; a horticulture internship focused on integrated pest management (IPM); manager of marketing and merchandising for an Oregon plant nursery where she integrated native plant species into nursery stock and gave numerous workshops on incorporating wildlife, IPM and xeriscaping into home gardens; and as an entrepreneur who started and managed a landscape design company focused on the incorporation of native and non-invasive species to New England home landscapes. Other experience includes an internship in conservation marketing and development for an Oregon non-profit where she created a neighborhood conservation marketing plan and conducted grant research; an internship in zoology where she cared for a diversity of animal species including threatened and endangered species and worked on animal enrichment and habitat displays; and work with the American Burying Beetle Species Survival Plan where she cared for and tracked American Burying Beetle populations and assisted in their catch and release on Martha’s Vineyard. In her free time Melanie enjoys hiking and exploring the Northwest, photography and spending time with her two young children.

Spring is a conservation ecologist and data analyst with over 15 years of experience in research, data analysis, habitat restoration, ecological monitoring and management of conserved lands in southern California. She has participated in conservation practice as a scientist, land–manager, and consultant, interfacing with NGOs, jurisdictions and government agencies regularly in these capacities. She has been involved in a number of research programs aimed at advancing the use of science in adaptive management and monitoring plans for several Natural Community Conservation Planning or associated programs. In this capacity she trained and managed field crews, performed field work, helped develop and implement novel data analysis strategies and provided practical interpretations of statistical results for end users. Spring developed a conceptual model for the federally threatened and state endangered plant, Deinandra conjugens and facilitated the development of a conceptual model for the coastal sage scrub vegetation community with representatives from NGOs, academic institutions, local jurisdictions and state and federal agencies. She was also involved in advancing the knowledge base about the rare Hermes copper butterfly (Lycena hermes) which is now a candidate for federal listing. 

Gladwin Joseph was born in a town called Nazareth in Tamil Nadu, India, but has lived in Ghana, India and the USA. He was, until recently, the Director and Professor at the School of Development, Azim Premji University (APU), Bangalore, India. Prior to that, he was a senior leader of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), an Environmental think-tank and academic institution. He was its director for 10 years and with its founding president helped build and establish ATREE as a premier conservation and sustainability organization in India. His publications span a diverse range of topics from plant ecophysiology to conservation and livelihoods. After finishing a degree in Agriculture in India from the University of Agricultural Sciences, he completed his MS and Ph.D. at Oregon State University. He helped initiate the development of an online course on sustainability for the global south for undergraduate students at APU. He continues to advise and provide inputs on course design as a visiting faculty. In his spare time he is actively involved with the open source Indian Biodiversity portal, particularly the treesindia group which is working on a citizen science project documenting all of India’s tree species. He is also working on an easy-to-use bilingual (English-Spanish) pictorial guide to trees of Oregon. He continues to serve on Ph.D. student advisory committees as an adjunct senior fellow at ATREE. His hobbies include gardening and cooking with his kids, keeping track of global news, reading books on history, culture and religion, hiking, and fly fishing.

Bill Pfeil is passionately committed to the defense of our natural environments and the preservation of all species. He has a strong interest in data visualization tools and techniques for solving scientific problems and communicating results. Bill has more than 20 years experience developing desktop, mobile, and enterprise applications. He has created solutions for many types of industries including environmental, scientific and optical, radio, law enforcement, banking, and logistics and transportation. Bill has worked with many different languages and technologies including c, c++, .net, objective-c, java, javascript, ruby, rails, unity, android studio and more.

Mindy Boyd joined CBI as an Administrative Assistant in 2012. She is new to the conservation community, but has spent the last 12 years providing technical support and managing releases for software used internally by Credit Unions.  During her free time  she enjoys running, being outdoors and spending time with her family.

Mike Gough is a GIS analyst with 12+ years professional experience in the geospatial sciences. Prior to joining CBI in 2012, Mike served as a GIS lecturer in the Environmental Science & Management Department at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA.  During his tenure with HSU’s Institute for Spatial Analysis, he served as the lead GIS Analyst and Systems Administrator on several multidisciplinary projects spanning oceanographic research and education, water quality monitoring, infrastructure development, natural hazards, renewable energy, and land use planning. Between 2004 and 2012, he made significant contributions to the Central and Northern California Ocean Observing System (HSU CeNCOOS).  Among these, was the development of several automated real-time data acquisition & monitoring systems.

Mike draws upon his background in the geospatial sciences, natural resource planning, and computer information systems to guide the development of tools which help promote healthy and sustainable interactions among human and natural systems. His direct research interests comprise dynamic spatiotemporal modeling, web-mapping and database application development, scripting & automation, 3D geographic visualization, and the development of decision-support tools.

Mike earned his B.S. in Natural Resources Planning & Interpretation with an option in Geographic Information Systems & Remote Sensing and a minor in Computer Information Systems from Humboldt State University in 2005. He lives with his wife Rebecca and their entourage of furry companions.