Michael Clifford (Utah) - GIS Technical Support

Michael earned his B.S. in Biology from Westminster College in 2005. He is currently pursuing his M.S. in Biology at Northern Arizona University. His Masters Thesis is focused on pinyon-juniper woodlands and drought-induced mortality in the Southwest.

Michael's research interests include vegetation changes and climactic interactions, natural range of variability and Landscape Ecology.

Michael's work with GRAIL includes GIS analysis and mapping, researching and writing grant proposals, website maintenance, and other project support.

Neil Cobb - GRAIL Coordinator / Ecologist

Neil earned his B.S. in Entomology from Oregon State University in 1981, his M.S. in Biology from Northern Arizona University in 1989 and his Ph.D. in Biology from Northern Arizona University in 1993.

Neil’s research interests that are relevant to the GRAIL include documenting and understanding climate change and land use impacts on Colorado Plateau ecosystems.  Currently he is studying the impact of climate-change induced drought and bark beetle outbreaks on pinyon-juniper woodlands.  He is also overseeing the development of several online information portals including the Beaver Creek Environmental Atlas, the Greater Grand Canyon-Peaks Ecosystem, Drought Impacts on Regional Ecosystems Network (DIREnet), and the Pinyon-Juniper Information Node. 

Neil is Director of the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research and Curator at the Colorado Plateau Museum of Arthropod Biodiversity.

Brett Dickson – Spatial Analyst / Ecological Modeler

Brett received a Ph.D. in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology from Colorado State University in 2006, where his research focus was on the response of avian communities to landscape-level prescribed fire experiments in ponderosa pine forests of Arizona and New Mexico. He received a Master of Science degree in Forestry (2001) from Northern Arizona University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Conservation Biology (1996) from San Jose State University. Brett's other research interests include the use of spatial models in ecology, carnivore biology, and quantifying the effects of disturbance, fragmentation and urbanization on wildlife communities.

Brett is a postdoctoral fellow with the ForestERA project where his responsibilities include the development and application of empirically-based wildlife and forest treatment models.

Haydee Hampton – Spatial Analyst

Haydee received a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Resources Engineering (1985) from Humboldt State University, a Master of Science degree in Environmental Engineering (1990) from Stanford University, and a Masters of Arts in Geography and Public Planning from Northern Arizona University (1998). Prior to developing ecological models and supporting stakeholder processes with GIS based data and tools in the School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability at NAU, she has worked in management at a major west coast utility planning electrical generation needs, in consulting at Science Applications International Corporation and in spatial database development at the U.S. Geological Survey. Her interests center around the use and application of spatial analysis and remote sensing in landscape ecology, environmental sciences and engineering.

With the School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability Haydee develops spatial layers and tools supporting sustainable decision-making and designs and supports GRAIL geodatabase and internet mapping efforts. She was the Principal Investigator of the Small-Diameter Wood Supply Analysis (May 2007-February 2008, with follow-up GIS support to stakeholders March 2008-09) and is currently working on other projects involving fire, carbon, and climate spatial modeling at the landscape scale.

Paul Heinrich - Network Administrator

Paul earned his B.S. in Biology in 1982, his B.S. in Physics in 1986, and his M.S. in Ecology in 1994 from The Pennsylvania State University.

Paul administers servers, workstations and software. He develops MS SQL databases, ArcIMS Internet Mapping, and Dynamic Web Sites. Special projects he is working on with the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research include: BE-IDEA Educational Media Production, NICCR (National Institute for Climate Change Research) and an Online Research Application System. Paul also teaches Federal Geographic Data Committee Geospatial Metadata Workshops.

Kirsten Ironside - Spatial Modeler / Plant Ecologist

Kirsten earned her B.S. in Ecology and Systematic Biology from California Polytechnic State University, and her M.S. in Environmental Science and Policy in 2006 from Northern Arizona University.

Kirsten's research focuses on global climate change impacts on the distribution and abundance of plants. Kirsten provides GIS support for Merriam-Powell GIS projects and coordinates metadata training programs.

Mark Manone - Training Facility Coordinator / Physical Geographer

Mark received his an M.A. in Geography with emphasis in Remote Sensing/GIS. He has been an Authorized ESRI ArcGIS Instructor since 2003 and a Research Associtate/Instructor in the Geology Department since 1994.

Mark has designed and implemented GIS courses in the Geology Curriculum and has performed numerous GIS training courses for private, State, Federal and Tribal agencies. Mark has also been very instrumental in the integration of geospatial data and technologies in several classes within the Geology, Environmental Sciences and Biology Departments.

Mark's interests and expertise are in field-based GIS, mobile wireless technology and terrestrial photogrammetry. He is involved in several research and innovation grants with the Hewlett-Packard Charitable Foundation, Science Foundation Arizona and the e-Learning Center.

Michael Peters - Database Specialist / Programmer

Michael earned a Database Systems Certificate from Northern Arizona University in 2006. He is a certified C programmer from the University of Phoenix, and is currently working on becoming a Java- certified programmer.

Michael is one of a team of employees working on Merriam-Powell’s numerous projects. His skills focus on web-design, graphic design, programming, database design and management.

Tom Sisk – Chair of GRAIL Advisory Committee / Landscape Ecologist

Tom Sisk is an ecologist with the Center for Environmental Sciences and Education at Northern Arizona University. He is a native of New Mexico and has spent most of his life in the Four Corners region. He directed an international program in tropical conservation biology for the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1992. He completed his undergraduate studies in biology at Colorado College in 1983. Before joining the NAU faculty in 1996, Tom served as the Special Assistant to the Director of the National Biological Service.

Currently, he teaches courses in ecology, conservation biology, and environmental policy, and oversees a research group studying the effects of habitat fragmentation, livestock grazing, forest management, and long-term changes in land use and land cover. In 2001 he was named a fellow of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program of the Ecological Society of America. Tom is the Principle Investigator for the ForestERA project.