Ecological Society of America Announces 2025 Leadership Election Results
December 17, 2025
For Immediate Release
Contact: Alison Mize, (202) 833-8773, alison@esa.org
The Ecological Society of America is pleased to announce its recent election results for three Governing Board positions and three positions for its Board of Professional Certification. Those selected by the membership to serve on the Governing Board beginning August 2026 are President-Elect for 2027–2028 Pamela Templer, Boston University; Vice President for Finance Serita Frey, University of New Hampshire; and Board Member Denis Valle, University of Florida. Three Certified Ecologists elected by the membership to serve on the Board of Professional Certification are Lara Pomi-Urbat, GEI Consultants; Vasavi Prakash, Indian Forest Service; and Kat Superfisky, City of Los Angeles.
ESA’s new president-elect for 2027, Pamela Templer, is a Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Biology Department at Boston University, where she studies how environmental change — from warming weather to air pollution and expanding cities — shapes ecosystem processes involving plants, soils and nutrient cycles. She brings extensive leadership experience to the role, including previously serving as ESA vice president for education; co-leading the Hubbard Brook Long-Term Ecological Research site, the Youth Environmental Alliance in Higher Education and the Climate Leaders Academy; and directing major training programs such as Boston University’s URBAN Graduate Program.
“I am honored to serve ESA and work alongside such a dedicated community of ecologists,” said Templer. “In a time when science faces mounting challenges, it is vital that we support research, training and collaboration across sectors. I look forward to helping strengthen connections among scientists, policymakers and the public to advance ecological knowledge and address pressing global challenges.”
In addition to serving as ESA vice president for education (2018–2021), Templer was elected an ESA Fellow in 2019. She has been a member of the Society since 2005.
“Pamela Templer is an exceptional scientist and leader, and I am delighted to welcome her as ESA’s next president-elect,” said ESA President Peter Groffman. “She brings deep expertise in ecosystem science, a strong record of mentoring and community building and a clear vision of how ecology can inform solutions at a time of rapid global change. I am confident she will serve the Society with energy, creativity and purpose.”
ESA is also pleased to welcome two additional governing board members for 2026–2029 who will share collective responsibilities in determining the strategic direction of the Society and providing oversight. These new members are Serita Frey, who will serve as vice president for finance, and board member Denis Valle.
Serita Frey, Vice President for Finance, is a Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of New Hampshire, where she co-directs the Center for Soil Biogeochemistry and Microbial Ecology. Her research focuses on how environmental change influences forest ecosystems, with an emphasis on soil microbial communities and nutrient cycling. Frey leads multiple global change experiments at the Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research site, chaired NEON’s Science, Technology and Education Advisory Committee (2016–2018) and was a lead author for the forests chapter of the Sixth National Climate Assessment. She is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Ecological Society of America. Her extensive service to ESA includes roles on the Boards of Editors for Ecology and Ecological Monographs, Editor-in-Chief of Issues in Ecology and membership on awards committees and student-focused initiatives.
Denis Valle, Board Member, is an Associate Professor in the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences at the University of Florida. His research centers on developing and applying quantitative methods to address ecological questions, with a strong focus on tropical systems and environmental management. Valle has held leadership roles at the University of Florida through service on the Tropical Conservation and Development Steering Committee and the University Minority Mentor Program. Within ESA, he served as vice-chair (2019–2021) and chair (2021–2023) of the Statistical Ecology Section and is currently an editorial board member for Ecological Applications. He is eager to bring perspectives from Latin America and to champion approaches that broaden access to ESA resources, support ecologists across their careers and expand outreach and engagement.
The Board of Professional Certification also welcomes three new members who will serve three-year terms, beginning on Jan. 1, 2026, and concluding Dec. 31, 2028. ESA’s certification program aims to serve the needs of ecologists who wish to establish and validate their professional credentials, to define minimum standards of education and experience for professional ecologists, to encourage all practicing ecologists to meet such standards and to create and maintain public confidence in the advice and opinions of certified ecologists by establishing a procedure for critical peer evaluation based upon defined minimum education, experience and ethical requirements. This year’s newly elected members are Lara Pomi-Urbat, Vasavi Prakash and Kat Superfisky.
The current ESA Governing Board Members are President Peter Groffman, Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies/City University of New York, Advanced Science Research Center, through August 2026; Immediate President-Elect Rese Cloyd, DC Department of Energy and Environment; Immediate Past-President Stephanie Hampton, Carnegie Institution for Science; Vice-President for Finance Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Harvard University, through August 2026; Secretary Shannon LaDeau, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, through August 2028; Board Member James Rattling Leaf, University of Colorado, through August 2026; Board Member Angee Doerr, Oregon State University, through August 2027; Board Member Alex Moore, University of British Columbia, through August 2027; Board Member Yude Pan, USDA Forest Service, through August 2027; Board Member Zakiya Leggett, North Carolina State University, through August 2028; and Board Member Kelly Ramirez, University of Texas at El Paso, through August 2028.
ESA thanks the dedicated ESA members who participated in the election.
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The Ecological Society of America, founded in 1915, is the world’s largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 8,000 member Society publishes six journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach and education initiatives. The Society’s Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science. Visit the ESA website at https://www.esa.org
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