Elsa Anderson, PhD
About Me:
I am a born-and-raised Illinoisan, with a deep-seeded love for prairies and Chicago style pizza. I am currently an Assistant Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University in Environmental Sciences and an affiliate researcher at the Neguanee Institute of the Chicago Botanic Garden. I specialize in urban biodiversity, and am primarily interested in why we see species where we do and how this impacts local residents. I specialize in social-ecological data analysis and geographic information systems. I am a leader in the Chicago Biodiversity Project, where we examine community science data as an avenue for increasing local environmental connections and knowledge and crowd-sourcing biodiversity information in a scientifically meaningful way. I work closely with neighborhood community groups, including Women for Green Spaces in Pilsen. In December 2021, I completed a postdoc at the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies, based in Millbrook, NY. I am a part of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study ramp-down team, working to synthesize long-term data. I am particularly focused on the role and function of the urban forest, and am taking a community-ecology approach to improve our understanding of urban trees. I recently spent time as a Fulbright Fellow, stationed in Berlin, Germany, where I worked with Dr. Ingo Kowarik at the Technische Universitat. My Fulbright research examined the legacies of borders and border walls in urban and peri-urban forests. I earned my PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2019, and worked the lab of Dr. Emily Minor. My dissertation work focused on a blend of urban ecology, socio-ecological systems, and ecological restoration, focused in Chi-town's many vacant lots. I am primarily interested in understanding how these spaces contribute to biodiversity and habitat availability in the city. I am also a Graduate Fellow at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) where I work with a team of graduate students from across the country in investigating how community gardens contribute to social and ecological connectivity in cities. |