Staff Bios

Holly Copeland
Spatial Ecologist/ Habitat Modeler, The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming
Holly works on spatial analysis for statewide and regional threat assessments, mitigation planning, modeling future energy development scenarios and conservation priorities assessments. She received her undergraduate degree in geography from the University of California at Davis and her master’s in geography from the University of Wyoming with additional training and courses in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and statistics at Duke University and Colorado State University. Copeland has articles published in the Journal of Conservation Planning, Bioscience, and Studies in Avian Biology.

Joe Kiesecker
Rocky Mountain Regional Science Director, The Nature Conservancy
Joe's main responsibilities include developing new tools, methods and techniques that improve conservation. Recently he has focused on developing a framework for blending landscape-level analysis with the mitigation hierarchy and is currently testing this process through a series of energy development pilot projects. He also conducts research in areas ranging from aquatic ecology to the effectiveness of new conservation tools. Joe’s training was in ecology and conservation biology, with a Ph.D. from Oregon State University (1997). He has held faculty appointments at Yale University, Penn State University and University of Wyoming. He has published over 100 articles (e.g. Nature, PNAS, American Scientist, Ecology, and Conservation Biology) on topics ranging from population ecology to the effectiveness of conservation strategies.

Brian Mealor
Stewardship Director, The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming
Brian’s research emphases on invasive species ecology and rangeland restoration are strongly tied to understanding the ecological resilience of native communities. He has a Ph.D. in rangeland ecology and management from the University of Wyoming. His research has ranged from molecular genetics of native plant populations under long-term exotic invasion, to population dynamics of secondary invasive species, to landscape-scale assessments of post-fire invasion dynamics. Brian has a passion for working with young people to help them understand eclogy and the importance of the West's rangelands. He hopes his research will result in cost-effective, yet ecologically meaningful, methods for restoring degraded rangelands.

Amy Pocewicz
Landscape Ecologist, The Nature Conservancy in Wyoming
Amy’s work includes conservation planning, alternative scenarios modeling, evaluating ecological effects of development, and assessing the effectiveness of conservation strategies such as conservation easements. Amy received her Ph.D. in landscape ecology from the University of Idaho, where she worked with an interdisciplinary team to model landscape change and the effects of alternative policy and residential growth scenarios on social and ecological conditions, while also studying the ecological effects of land use patterns. She received her M.S. in GIS and remote sensing from the University of Idaho and B.S. in forestry from the University of Illinois. When she’s not behind the computer screen, you may find her hiking in the Wind River Mountains or leading one of the Conservancy's annual butterfly counts.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Scott Copeland (Holly), Photo © David Stubbs (Joe), Photo © Kerry Brophy Lloyd/TNC (Brian), Photo © Nick Czarnecki (Amy).