Celebrating Women in Ecology

NEON is proud to employ many amazing women in ecology, both as full-time staff and in seasonal field positions. We also love to highlight the many women who are leveraging NEON data in their research and in the classroom. Over the last few years, our Women in Ecology series has spotlighted some of the women who work with the NEON program or are advancing ecology using NEON data.

Women are still a minority in ecology, making up 35% of the ecology workforce in the U.S.—but they are rapidly gaining ground. Part of our mission at NEON is to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the ecological sciences. That includes creating STEM career paths for women and other underrepresented groups.

For Women’s History Month, we wanted to revisit some of the Women in Ecology we’ve featured in the blog series. If you missed these interviews the first time around, we invite you to get to know these amazing women and their work. Watch for more spotlight blogs in the months ahead!

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  Bala Chaudhary

  Dr. Bala Chaudhary likes to ask big questions about the smallest components of ecosystems. As an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Studies at DePaul University, she studies plant-fungal mycorrhizal ecology and the landscape ecology of microbes. She uses NEON data to study plant-fungal relationships at large spatial scales and seeks to investigate questions that can inform the management of mycorrhizal fungi to improve biodiversity and restoration. As a woman of color with South Asian ancestry, she is also committed to breaking down barriers in STEM for students in underrepresented groups.

   

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  Kyla Dahlin

  Dr. Kyla Dahlin has seen a lot in her STEM journey, from making management plans for city parks to thinking globally about ecology. Now an Associate Professor at Michigan State University and member of NEON’s Airborne Remote Sensing Technical Working Group, she works with Earth system models to explore ecological change at larger spatial and temporal scales. She said, “I am excited about the possibilities new remote sensing tools will present for Earth observation. We currently know a whole lot about a small number of ecosystems around the world. Yet a lot of the most interesting and biodiverse ecosystems on Earth are located in places that have historically been ignored or overlooked by the scientific community.”

   

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  Shalane Frost

  Shalane Frost was the Assistant Field Operations Manager for two NEON Domains – D18 (Arctic Tundra) and D19 (Taiga) – until early 2024. A field experience in Arctic Alaska after finishing her undergraduate program inspired her to stay. She held a variety of field jobs involving forestry surveys, GIS, vegetation, and soil sampling before moving into a planning and logistical support role for the University of Alaska – Fairbanks. At the NEON program, she facilitated the field ecologists’ ability to collect data, which included administrative work, hiring seasonal technicians, and managing contracts, budgets, and schedules. Managing the logistics for remote and rugged locations in the Tundra and Taiga can be quite a challenge, but Shalane kept things moving smoothly for the NEON field sites.

   

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  Corinna Gries

  Dr. Corinna Gries, one of the Environmental Data Initiative (EDI) leads at the University of Wisconsin, is passionate about the benefits of digitizing data and making it more publicly accessible. She has navigated a decades-long career at the intersection of technology, scientific research, and data management in STEM fields. After earning her Ph.D. in her native Germany, she completed her postdoctoral research at Arizona State University, where she led digitization efforts for their natural history collection. She would like to see ecological data become more accessible and usable so that it will naturally flow into decision-making and policy.

   

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  Lark Heston

  Lark Heston is a full-time Lead Botany Field Technician for the NEON program in Domain 07 (Appalachian and Cumberland Plateau). She started her career with NEON as a seasonal field technician in 2021. She says field research has been a core part of who she is since childhood, when she kept a daily nature log during her outdoor explorations. She loves being a field ecologist and spending her days in nature deep in the Smoky Mountains. She said, “Every day, my eyes are opened to some new species, ecological process, or natural connection that I was blind to before. It always makes me wonder how much else is out there that we just don’t see because we haven’t looked.”

   

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  Erin Hotchkiss

  Dr. Erin Hotchkiss has always been drawn to water. An Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech, she was introduced to freshwater research as an undergraduate. She collaborated with the NEON program to investigate relationships between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems using sensors at NEON stream sites. Much of her research has focused on carbon and nutrient cycling in stream ecosystems. Now, she’s excited to move beyond single-ecosystem research to explore connections between ecosystems and how water connections across ecosystem boundaries control the fate of carbon and nutrients as they move across landscapes.

   

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  Nayani Ilangakoon

  Dr. Nayani Ilangakoon draws from her childhood nature experiences in her research on the impact of wildfires on ecosystems. Growing up in Sri Lanka among rice paddy fields, she learned early how interdependent humans are with nature and witnessed the impacts of monsoon rains, drought, and wildfires. As a Ph.D. student at Boise State University, her research was directly impacted by the 2015 Soda Fire, which burned over 280,000 acres. Now, she uses NEON data—including hyperspectral, lidar, and RGB images from airborne platforms as well as soil and vegetation data—to study the impact of fire on ecosystem structure, composition, and diversity.

   

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  Phoebe Zarnetske

  Dr. Phoebe Lehmann Zarnetske, an ecologist and Associate Professor at Michigan State University, likes to take a big-picture view of ecology, looking at ecological change across spatial and temporal scales. She is especially interested in the impact of climate change, invasive species, land use changes, and environmental feedbacks on ecological community composition and resilience. Much of her work is interdisciplinary. She said, “The most fun part for me is the collaboration. I really enjoy seeing how the various disciplines within and outside ecology contribute and work together.”

   

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  Katie Marshall.

  Dr. Katie Marshall is fascinated by “patterns and processes” in ecology. She earned her Ph.D. in physiology with a focus on winter ecology at Acadia University and later studied intertidal ecology at the University of British Columbia. Now an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia, she leads a lab engaged in a variety of research projects, including using computational tools and machine learning methods to efficiently identify organisms collected in pitfall traps. She hopes her work will contribute to the integration of ecology, physiology, and computing to better understand the patterns and processes that shape our environment.

   

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  Lori Petrauski

  Lori Petrauski is a NEON Senior Field Ecologist for Domains 18 and 19 (Tundra and Taiga) in Alaska. In recent years, she partnered as a Community Fellow with AGU’s Thriving Earth Exchange (TEX) fellowship to help understand and predict native berry abundance. Inclusivity, appreciation for nature, and critical thinking about how ecology can help us understand future impacts are at the forefront of her approach to science. She is inspired by engaging with local Alaskan communities and making data relevant to people’s everyday lives. She said, “Ecology is a great gateway to science for people without a scientific background because it touches so many parts of life, including food security, public health, and safe living conditions—but through the clear lens of berries, birds, and other easily loved creatures.”

   

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  Wilmarie Plaza-Muniz

  Wilmarie Plaza-Muniz began working with the NEON program in 2015 as a Botany Temporary Lead in Domain 04 in Puerto Rico and is now a Technician Specialist in Botany for the Domain. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she says “the magic of the forest” is deeply interwoven with her culture. She brings her passion for forestry and plant ecology to her role as the outreach liaison for D04, which includes engaging with the newest generation of STEM students. “Bringing science to students by exposing them to the NEON program and now being able to share both my challenges and success can really empower these students, especially females, to continue pursuing science and ecology,” she said.

   

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  Clara Qin

  Dr. Clara Qin bridges the gap between ecological knowledge and practical application. Her Ph.D. research at the University of California – Santa Cruz focused on the impact of climate change on fungal communities and the role fungi play in carbon cycling. She is interested in interdisciplinary approaches to ecology and the interconnections between ecology, the environment, and social sciences, including the disproportionate impacts of climate change on marginalized communities and the Global South. Since her NEON interview was published, she has completed her Ph.D. and is now working as a Postdoctoral Data Scientist at the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN).

   

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  Roisin Stanbrook in the field with one of her students

  Dr. Roisin Stanbrook’s research on insects has taken her from the bogs of her native Ireland to the Afromontane forests of Tanzania and many other places around the globe. As a postdoctoral research fellow and conservation biologist at the University of Central Florida, she studied the role that dung beetles play in various ecosystems—and even discovered a new species that landed one of her specimens next to a discovery of Charles Darwin’s at the Oxford University Natural History Museum. She hopes her research will shed light on the alarming rate of decline in insect populations globally and also change public perception of insects by showing their vital importance in every ecosystem.

   

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  Nidhi Vinod

  Nidhi Vinod came to plant ecology via a winding career path that started in India as the daughter of a farming family. Her love of plants led her to spend two years traveling across Central America and Asia, learning about other cultures and their relationships with plants and nature. She says, “I found it fascinating how one can travel anywhere and talk to people about plants.” Her research pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of California – Los Angeles combined plant physiology, eddy covariance data, and remote sensing data to connect the micro-scale of plant physiology to the macro understanding of how ecosystems function. Her work has taken her to many of the NEON field sites.