Jared works within the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services group at CEES and the Wake Forest Department of Biology to teach various wildlife-based courses and establish research program centered on, but not limited to, the current Pilot Mountain State Park research project and the southeast in general exploring various ecology and conservation-based questions. Most of Jared’s research has looked at exploring various new and emerging outlets for population estimation and habitat restoration.
Paul Bogard is the author of The Ground Beneath Us: From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt Tells Us About Who We Are, published by Little, Brown. He is also the author of The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light, published in North America by Little, Brown, and in the UK and around the world by 4th Estate/Harper Collins. The End of Night has been translated into German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean, and is available in hardcover, e-book, paperback, and audiobook.
Becky Dickson is an experienced spatial analyst and educator with a demonstrated history of working for non-profits, private companies and in the higher education industry. She is highly skilled in GIS, Remote Sensing, Spatial Analysis, and Spatial Modeling with a focus on Ecosystem Services, Land Cover Change and Sustainability. She received her PhD in Geography from Clark University.
Sarah duPont is an award-winning humanitarian, educator and filmmaker and is a vocal advocate of ecological preservation. As the President and Founder of the Amazon Aid Foundation, Sarah works with Neotropical scientists to study Amazonian biodiversity with an eye toward educating the public and introducing cutting-edge conservation practices and on the ground solutions to the region. Sarah is a producer and co-director of the award winning film River of Gold and the short documentary Mercury Uprising, both films about illegal gold mining in the Amazon Rainforest. Her other film projects include producing the award-winning Kids Against Malaria music video P.S.A., a transmedia program to promote treatment and prevention for malaria in Africa and the Anthem for the Amazon music video, a video with the voices of 500 children from around the world singing to protect the Amazon.
Jason Houston’s photography explores how we live on the planet and with each other, looking at issues related to the environment through the lens of human experience. A believer in the inherent value of deeper, more complex stories and the idea of “Slow Journalism“, Jason often blends commissioned work with personal projects, adding extra days or weeks of his own time to his assignments. The majority of his work is in collaboration with social cause and environmental organizations, and editorial feature work for magazines.
David Lutz is an environmental scientist and ecologist with a background in simulation modeling, remote sensing, and ecological economics. His research focuses on documenting and analyzing environmental change through the use of novel modern technological methods. In addition, he is keenly interested in the construction of simulation and empirical models to investigate optimal adaptive management strategies that allow for the continued delivery of ecosystem services from natural landscapes in future scenarios of change. David is the Primary Investigator of a NASA Interdisciplinary Science project that utilizes the historical satellite archive and three decades of citizen science observations to observe changes in water quality in New England lakes.
In the last twenty years, Julie has focused her work in marine research and conservation off the coast of Belize. Today, she manages the Belize Oceans Program aligning science, technology, policy, finance and livelihoods into a comprehensive fisheries management and aquaculture program.
Julie has a degree in Biology from the University of South Florida, is fluent in English, Spanish and Creole and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Belize Audubon Society, Belize’s oldest and largest conservation NGO.
Carol L. Mitchell, Ph.D., is a tropical ecologist and conservationist dedicated to the preservation and restoration of wild nature. From 2005 through 2018 Dr. Mitchell served as Deputy Director for Science at Everglades National Park, leading National Park Service strategic science initiatives for the Everglades Restoration Program, the largest wetland ecosystem restoration program in the world. Previously she worked with WWF and Conservation International, leading interdisciplinary conservation and development programs in the southeastern rainforests of Peru. Her focus during her career has shifted from doing the primary field research toward managing conservation science organizations and tailoring both the production and the synthesis of the science to the needs of decision-makers. Her current interests are in ecosystem restoration in the tropics, and natural resources conservation and science policy in Latin America and the US, especially the role that science plays in decision-making for protected areas.
Dr. Varun Swamy is a tropical forest ecologist with over 14 years of experience conducting ecological research in the lowland rainforests of the Madre de Dios River Basin in the Peruvian Amazon. A native of India, he spent 19 years in the United States, where he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Connecticut College, and a Ph.D. from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, specializing in tropical forest ecology. His first visit to Peru and Madre de Dios was in 2003 to begin his doctoral dissertation research, and he has returned to Peru every year since. Dr. Swamy is currently a Research Fellow at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, and lives in the city of Puerto Maldonado.
Jared Woollacott brings expertise in economic modeling to our Environmental and Health Sciences team. He specializes in the construction and application of economy-wide models, including input-output, static and dynamic CGE, and partial equilibrium models.
Using economic modeling, Dr. Woollacott analyzes the effects of new policies and other changes on regional and national employment, development, and environmental outcomes. He is currently contributing to several studies of existing and proposed air quality and greenhouse-gas reduction regulations in the United States. He also led the design of a study of the broad economic effects of the expanding apparel-manufacturing industry in Haiti.
Dr. Keerthi Senevirathne is the Principal Investigator in the Department of Chemistry at Florida State University. His research focuses on photocatalysis, biodiesel synthesis, battery cathodes, and the ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) method.