California
Rebecca Shaw, Ph.D.
Director of Conservation Science, The Nature Conservancy of California
Shaw is the lead scientist for the Natural Capital Project’s Sierra Nevada demonstration site. She has also played a key role in launching the Natural Capital Project team developing new mapping and modeling approaches. At TNC, Shaw manages an interdisciplinary group of scientists and technical experts that is working to incorporate the best available scientific information into the full array of TNC programs. Prior to joining TNC, Shaw conducted research at the Department of Global Ecology on the impacts of global change on ecosystems processes and biodiversity. The results of her research have been published in leading academic journals including Science and Nature. She received her M.A. in environmental policy and her PhD in energy and resources from the University of California at Berkeley.
>>Meet the rest of the California site team
China
Gretchen Daily, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
Daily, an ecologist whose work ranges from conservation science to environmental policy analysis to public outreach, is one of the founders of the Natural Capital Project and serves as its chief emissary to financial and government leaders. She is working to develop a scientific basis - and political and institutional support - for managing Earth's life-support systems. Daily has published more than 150 scientific and popular articles. Her most recent book is “The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable,” coauthored with journalist Katherine Ellison (2002, Island Press). She serves on the boards of The Nature Conservancy (and its Science Council) and the Beijer International Institute for Ecological Economics, and at Stanford she is Director of the Center for Conservation Biology.
>>Meet the rest of the China site team
Coastal Belize
Mary Ruckelshaus, Ph.D.
Managing Director
Ruckelshaus oversees all work of the Natural Capital Project partnership including strategy, coordination, fundraising, communications, and hiring. She is based in Seattle, WA, where she was a staff scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service for 13 years. Prior to that, she was an assistant professor of biological sciences at The Florida State University (1994-1997). The main focus of her recent work is on developing ecological models including estimates of the flow of environmental services under different management regimes in marine systems worldwide. Ruckelshaus serves on the board of The Nature Conservancy (and its Science Council), is a Trustee on The Nature Conservancy's Washington Board, and is a past chair of the Science Advisory Board of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). Ruckelshaus has also been chief scientist for the Puget Sound Partnership, a public-private institution charged with achieving recovery of the Puget Sound terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Ruckelshaus has a bachelor's degree in human biology from Stanford University, a master's degree in fisheries from the University of Washington, and a doctoral degree in botany, also from Washington.
>>Meet the rest of the Coastal Belize site team
Hawai'i
Gretchen Daily, Ph.D.
Professor of Biology
Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
Daily, an ecologist whose work ranges from conservation science to environmental policy analysis to public outreach, is one of the founders of the Natural Capital Project and serves as its chief emissary to financial and government leaders. She is working to develop a scientific basis - and political and institutional support - for managing Earth's life-support systems. Daily has published more than 150 scientific and popular articles. Her most recent book is “The New Economy of Nature: The Quest to Make Conservation Profitable,” coauthored with journalist Katherine Ellison (2002, Island Press). She serves on the boards of The Nature Conservancy (and its Science Council) and the Beijer International Institute for Ecological Economics, and at Stanford she is Director of the Center for Conservation Biology.
>>Meet the rest of the Hawai'i site team
Indonesia
Nirmal Bhagabati
Senior Program Officer (Ecosystem Services), World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US) Conservation Science Program
Bhagabati leads WWF's efforts to apply InVEST in priority field sites. He developed an interest in conservation growing up in the biodiversity-rich region of northeast India near the Eastern Himalayas. After completing undergraduate work in India in biology and computer science, Bhagabati pursued doctoral research at the State University of New York, studying geographic variation in birds (Mexican Jays) in the southwestern US and northern Mexico. Subsequently, he studied the genetics of an avian hybrid zone at the Smithsonian Institution, and then worked as a bioinformatics analyst at The Institute for Genomic Research, where he developed software, analyzed data, and trained biologists in data analysis. Bhagabati also has a degree in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology from the University of Maryland. He has worked with several environmental organizations, including the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Conservation International, the National Wildlife Federation and World Wildlife Fund, on diverse projects including GIS-based analyses of human dimensions of conservation, biofuels, tropical deforestation and climate change policy, and landscape-level conservation planning.
>>Meet the rest of the Indonesia site team
Northern Andes and Southern Central America
Silvia Benitez
Conservation Projects Manager and Ecosystems Services Coordinator
The Nature Conservancy
>>Meet the rest of the Norther Andes and Southern Central America team
Tanzania
Taylor Ricketts, Ph.D.
Director of Conservation Science, World Wildlife Fund
Natural Capital Project co-founder Ricketts is the project’s liaison with World Wildlife Fund, and, like Kareiva, provides strategic guidance. His interests span a broad range of topics in ecology and conservation biology, from global analyses of biodiversity patterns to field studies on the ecological and economic effects of land-use change. Ricketts led WWF’s conservation assessment of North American eco-regions, the first in a continuing series published by Island Press. Ricketts’ current research focuses on the agricultural value of wild pollinators and their habitats, and on mapping the economic costs and benefits of conservation. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and has been recognized with awards from the Society for Conservation Biology, the National Science Foundation, the Summit Foundation, and others.
>>Meet the rest of the Tanzania site team
WCVI
Mary Ruckelshaus, Ph.D.
Managing Director
Ruckelshaus oversees all work of the Natural Capital Project partnership including strategy, coordination, fundraising, communications, and hiring. She is based in Seattle, WA, where she was a staff scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service for 13 years. Prior to that, she was an assistant professor of biological sciences at The Florida State University (1994-1997). The main focus of her recent work is on developing ecological models including estimates of the flow of environmental services under different management regimes in marine systems worldwide. Ruckelshaus serves on the board of The Nature Conservancy (and its Science Council), is a Trustee on The Nature Conservancy's Washington Board, and is a past chair of the Science Advisory Board of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS). Ruckelshaus has also been chief scientist for the Puget Sound Partnership, a public-private institution charged with achieving recovery of the Puget Sound terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Ruckelshaus has a bachelor's degree in human biology from Stanford University, a master's degree in fisheries from the University of Washington, and a doctoral degree in botany, also from Washington.