2022-2024
Dr. Karen Bailey – Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, University of Colorado Boulder
Bailey is an interdisciplinary ecologist interested in justice and equity in ecology, human-environment interactions, climate change, and sustainable rural livelihoods. She received her B.A. from Princeton University and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Florida in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and Interdisciplinary Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, respectively. Her research emphasizes the interactions between social justice, conservation, sustainability and human well-being. Her current projects focus on climate adaptation and human well-being in southern and East Africa, human-wildlife coexistence, barriers to entry in natural resource fields and just and equitable approaches to climate change adaptation.
Dr. Aroloye Ofo Numbere – Lecturer/Researcher, University of Port Harcourt
Dr. Numbere obtained a B.Sc. in zoology from the University of Port Harcourt in 1996 and an M.Sc. in environmental management from the University of Science and Technology in Nigeria in 2006. He completed his Ph.D. in biology in 2014 at St. Louis University in Missouri. Numbere is a mangrove ecologist with more than 15 years of professional experience and since 2008 he has been a lecturer/researcher at the University of Port Harcourt, where he teaches ecology and environmental science courses. He studies the impact of urbanization, oil and gas exploration and invasive species on mangrove. He also studies seedling recruitment, agro-mangrove forestry, and DNA sequencing.
Dr. Bruno Soares – Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Toronto-Scarborough, Department of Biological Sciences
Soares is a Brazilian aquatic ecologist, currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto-Scarborough. He obtained his Ph.D in ecology in 2020 at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His research focuses on the processes structuring aquatic communities and food webs, primarily on processes related to natural and anthropogenic environmental filters. He investigates how different land uses affect biodiversity in the Amazon and how community structure is linked to food web structure to better predict the effects of anthropization in the functioning of ecosystems.
Dr. Nikki Traylor-Knowles – Associate Professor in Marine Biology and Ecology; University of Miami; Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Sciences
Traylor-Knowles leads the Cnidarian Immunity Laboratory, which investigates the mechanisms of immune function in corals. She received her B.S. and M.S. in cell and molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University, her PhD. in biology from Boston University, and did a NSF Ocean Sciences Postdoctoral fellowship at Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University. She is the founder and director of Black Women in Ecology, Evolution and Marine Science, a 501(c)(3) non-profit founded to help combat the isolation and abuse in STEM against Black women. She is an advocate for Black women in science and academia and is determined to disrupt the system by creating a new narrative and structure.
