Lance Craighead

Background

About Lance Craighead

I am a field ecologist, population geneticist, and GIS technician with several decades of experience in conservation planning. I just finished co-editing a book with Charles Convis to be published in January 2013 by Esri Press:"Conservation Planning: Shaping the Future". My current research interests focus on aspects of conservation planning based upon focal or umbrella species: population and metapopulation persistence, gene flow, habitat connectivity, core habitat, and protected areas. I have published numerous scientific papers, completed three book chapters, and published one book:"Bears of the World" for Colin Baxter/Voyageur Press. As the Executive Director of the Craighead Institute I coordinate research; helping synthesize results and directing communications, fundraising, and development. I have been the ED of the Institute since 1994. I have a Bachelor's degree (B.S.) from Carleton College in 1969. I then worked for 5 years, including 3 years in the Peace Corps in Fiji and Samoa. I received an M.Sc. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977 where I studied seabirds in the Pribilof Islands of Alaska. I worked for another 10 years, primarily in Alaska. I completed a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Montana State University in 1994 studying grizzly bear genetics in the Alaskan Arctic. I am currently a Research Affiliate Professor of Ecology at MSU. I am a member of the IUCN World Committee on Protected Areas, the Society for Conservation Biology, and the Society for Conservation GIS.