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Amielle DeWan
Director of Conservation Planning
Areas of expertise: Wildlife biology, biodiversity conservation planning, wildlife monitoring, climate change adaptation, biostatistics, state wildlife action plans, GIS, habitat fragmentation, connectivity
Amielle oversees Defenders' conservation planning program, which provides capacity and technical support to state agencies and land trusts to protect wildlife and biodiversity. Amielle is responsible for managing Defenders' work on State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs), with particular emphasis on developing planning tools for climate change adaptation that will enhance and compliment existing conservation plans, and facilitating collaboration among state, federal, and private land partners. She also provides guidance and oversight for the Living Lands program, an initiative aimed at strengthening the role of land trusts in biodiversity conservation.
Prior to joining Defenders, Amielle created and managed the Hudson River Estuary/Cornell University Wildlife Monitoring Program in New York State. Her work focused on developing a comprehensive and statistically sound sampling strategy for monitoring wildlife communities and habitat loss, which was being used as a pilot program for New York's SWAP. She has worked on a variety of ecology and conservation research projects in North America and Africa relevant to birds, amphibians, primates, and mammals.
Amielle holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University where she studied the impact of land-use change and fragmentation on wildlife in the Hudson River Valley corridor. She completed her M.S. in Conservation Biology from the State University of New York at Albany and has a B.A. in Biology from the SUNY Binghamton.
Contact Information
Phone: 202-772-3234
Email: adewan@defenders.org
