Jill Lackett (University Deputy Director, Research Associate)

Jill Lackett is the University Deputy Director of the NC CSC and a Research Associate IV at the Natural Resource Ecology Lab at Colorado State University. Jill coordinates the North Central University Consortium, oversees NC CSC operations from the university-side, and contributes to NC CSC funded research. Jill worked on the first National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change in the U.S. in the late 1990s, working in the Great Plains region.  She has also worked at the Center for Collaborative Conservation at CSU where she gained experience working collaboratively with communities on conservation issues. Jill’s research interests include bridging the social and natural sciences, climate change adaptation, and co-produced research. Jill holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Loyola University-New Orleans, with major coursework taken at Tulane University, and an M.A. in Anthropology, specializing in human ecology, from Colorado State University.

Trevor Even

Trevor Even, M.A., is an anthropologist, socio-ecological systems researcher, and Ph.D. student in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology Human-Environment Interactions track, where he works with Dr. Ojima and Dr. Kathleen Galvin. His current dissertation research focuses on the intersection of cultural value systems, future ideation, and multi-level water governance in the South Platte Basin. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach that incorporates Open Source GIS, ethnographic fieldwork, policy analysis, and participatory agent based modeling, he hopes to find ways for the diverse multi-level governance community in the region to better engage with stakeholders across the professional and socio-economic spectrum. In this, he draws upon work conducted at the North Central Climate Science Center focused on assessing the climate change vulnerability of Colorado public land-dependent communities, as well as M.A. level work on community disaster recovery and coordination processes related to the 2012 wildfire season and 2013 floods. In his spare time, he gardens, restores antique hand tools, and stays up way too late reading about climate change impacts, chemical plant explosions, and international disaster events.

Bob Flynn

Bob Flynn has worked in various roles in the IT and GIS fields for over 30 years including support for NASA, public utilities, city governments and higher education. He earned a BS degree in 1996 from Colorado State University in Natural Resource Management with a GIS emphasis. He currently is a Research Associate at CSU and has supported numerous GIS related projects for the North Central Climate Science Center, the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research project, the Natural Resources Ecology Lab and the Soil and Crop Sciences Department. This research work has involved climate analysis and modeling, precision farming, irrigation, pest management, soils mapping and ecological modeling.

Lindsey Middleton

Lindsey Middleton is currently working toward an MS in Public Communication and Technology from CSU with a research interest in science communications. She has dual undergrad degrees in Journalism and Technical Communication, with a focus on specialized and technical communication, and Ecosystem Science and Sustainability (CSU). She has a minor in Spanish, spent a semester in Spain, and contributed to High Park Fire watershed modeling research during her undergrad. Lindsey previously worked for the Colorado Water Institute as an editor and for the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences to update best management practice publications for Extension. She also took part in an outreach campaign to inform the state’s agricultural community about nutrient regulations.

Amber Childress-Runyon

Amber Childress-Runyon is a PhD candidate in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, specializing in methodologies to study interactions between human and environmental systems and her research focuses on understanding climate change impacts and adaptation through a social-ecological systems context.Her interest in climate adaptation began at a young age when she observed the impacts, growing up on a West Texas cotton farm.  She loves spending as much time as she can outside, which created a love for nature and conservation and a desire to study how people interact with and are affected by changes to their environment. Amber’s dissertation research specifically focuses on evaluating influences on and evolution of drought management strategies of water providers in the South Platte River Basin and what this can tell us about their capacity to adapt to climate change and population growth. The interdisciplinary project combines institutional analysis, climate analysis, and the role they play in agent decision-making, utilizing mixed-methods methodologies, including: qualitative analysis of interviews, surveys, and extensive document review; climate analysis and development of scenarios from evaluation of GCMs; vulnerability indicators analysis; agent-based modeling; and qualitative comparative analysis. Amber also works for the National Park Service Climate Change Response Program, as an Adaptation Science Research Assistant, conducting technical analysis of climate impacts on park resources and monitoring adaptation efforts throughout the park system. She worked for the North Central Climate Science Center on a number of climate change vulnerability-related projects, including the Great Plains Technical Report (2012) for the National Climate Assessment and the Colorado Climate Vulnerability Assessment.