Director | Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Laura Dee is an ecologist and sustainability scientist whose research focuses on biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and improving decision-making for environmental management under climate change. She works with interdisciplinary teams and community partners to design and evaluate nature-based solutions that support both ecosystems and human well-being. Her research has informed conservation planning and environmental policy at local, national, and global scales.

Managing Director of Education | Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Lisa Corwin is a biology education researcher focused on community-engaged science and training the next generation of environmental problem solvers. Her work explores how students develop skills in collaboration, resilience, and interdisciplinary problem-solving while working on real-world environmental challenges. Through NPAC, she leads initiatives that integrate education, research, and partnerships to prepare students and practitioners to design and implement nature-based solutions.

Managing Director of Research | Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Kaitlin Kimmel is an ecologist who has extensive research experience within academia and applied settings. Her research spans biodiversity-ecosystem functioning relationships, conservation science, meta-science within ecology, and environmental security. She has worked with end-users ranging from public land managers to farmers and ranchers to government officials. At NPAC, she advances collaborative research efforts and ensures transparency and replicability of our science.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Kyle Manley is a postdoctoral researcher studying how global change reshapes coupled social-ecological systems. His work focuses on how climate change, disturbance, and urbanization alter the ways people interact with, are at risk from, and depend on ecosystems, particularly through the lens of Nature’s Contributions to People.

Across his research, he develops data-driven approaches to make these often-overlooked human dimensions of environmental change visible and measurable. This includes work on how wildfire and prescribed fire shape public land visitation, how patterns of human development influence fire behavior and risk, how functioning intact ecosystems in public lands benefit us all, and how climate change drives interconnected ecological and sociocultural processes across borders.

He also contributes to efforts to develop scalable, reproducible indicators of nature-positive outcomes for cities, enabling comparisons and tracking progress aligned with the Berlin Urban Nature Pact. In parallel, he is a contributing author to the U.S. Geological Survey-led Biodiversity and Climate Change Assessment, where he leads work on sociocultural flows and contributes to research on human movement and broader transboundary dynamics linking climate change, biodiversity, and society.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Keiko Nomura is a marine social-ecological systems scientist focused on fisheries sustainability and marine resource management. Her research has covered topics like marine spatial planning, fisheries climate adaptation, and conflict and cooperation in international fisheries. She combines quantitative network and spatial analyses with qualitative governance contexts to address key questions on ocean resource use. As a Postdoctoral Researcher at ESIIL at CU Boulder, she is now exploring how international seafood trade affects food security and sustainable development in the Pacific Islands. With NPAC, she is working with WWF to develop biodiversity indicators of marine ecosystem integrity and connectivity across habitats like seagrasses, coral reefs, mangroves, and rocky shorelines.

PhD Candidate

Advyth is a PhD Candidate in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at CU Boulder. His research focuses on understanding how plants influence ecosystem dynamics and nature’s contributions to people. At NPAC, Advyth is leading a project to investigate whether certain tree species have a greater cooling impact on urban air temperature than others. In this project, NPAC researchers are deploying a network of temperature sensors across Boulder to measure urban heat and the cooling benefits of trees. Researchers are also studying the “functional traits” of tree species—measurable properties of plants including the architecture of tree canopies and leaf adaptations—to assess if the unique characteristics of tree species impact their contributions to heat reduction. This project is conducted in partnership with the City of Boulder Department of Climate Initiatives and Department of Parks & Recreation.

PhD Student

Tyler is a PhD student in the Dee and Balch Labs at CU Boulder. His research investigates landscape resilience in the face of disturbances and how we can better adapt to a future with increasing fire, drought, and ecological change. In his research he integrates methods from the fields of disturbance ecology, remote sensing, and impact evaluation. Prior to his role as a PhD student, Tyler was a research coordinator in the CU Boulder Earth Lab, where his work focused on post-disturbance ecosystem resilience, macrosystems ecology, and providing tools and collaborative spaces to support the broader environmental data science community. He earned his BS and MS degrees in Earth Systems from Stanford University. Tyler grew up in Wyoming and now lives in Colorado. He is an avid outdoor recreationalist, enjoys a good book on a rainy day, and attempts to publish poetry every once in a while.

PhD Student

Manuela is a Ph.D student in the REACH Lab conducting a lot of interdisciplinary work at the intersect of science education, diversity, ecology, and sustainability. She collaborates with the Center for Regenerative Solutions (CRS) working on projects related to biodiversity and Urban Nature-based Solutions (NbS) within the Americas. Her main work focuses on understanding the levels of success within the area of biodiversity and Urban NbS in order to better educate and communicate to others the benefits of this work.

Outside of this work, Manuela enjoys traveling with my fiancé Daniel, playing video and boardgames, playing with my dog Charlie, hanging out with friends, and crocheting. She also enjoys working on additional projects related to my dissertation which include working on CU's Backyard Orchard.

Master’s Student

Mariah will be a first-year BAM (Bachelor Accelerated Master’s) student in the REACH Lab, working with Cool Boulder, a city-sponsored initiative focused on understanding how partner organizations implement nature-based solutions at all scales. She strives to combine creativity and scientific thinking to support community action through video projects, workshops, and drawing as communication methods. As a SPIKE Scholar, she is interested in how scientific knowledge is communicated and who has access to it. She views education as a space for reciprocity, cultural respect, and collective learning.

Outside of academics, Mariah loves going on long walks, always stopping to look at rocks, climb trees, and take in the wonders of the earth. She enjoys cooking with friends, playing guitar, and attending salsa dances when she can. Mariah helps organize the CU Capoeira club and participate in various scholar social committees. She always happy to share a coffee and connect more deeply.

Phd Student

Trevor is a first-year PhD student in the REACH lab with a background in studying how snowmelt timing influences arthropod diversity. After six years working as a paramedic, Trevor is excited to transition into graduate research with a growing interest in biology education and the ways human migration shapes biodiversity. 

Trevor’s research interests include how biology education can help support displaced populations and communities experiencing environmental change, as well as how we can help support and restore ecosystems aiding displaced populations. As Trevor begin his research, he aims to explore how accessible science education can connect people to nature-based solutions, focusing on the relationships between ecosystem restoration, environmental resilience, and human migration.