Joanna Grand

Dr. Joanna Grand is the Director of Spatial Conservation Planning with the National Audubon Society, based in Northampton, Massachusetts. Since joining Audubon in 2016, she has been leading multi-stakeholder, landscape conservation design efforts for Audubon’s priority coastal landscapes, such as the Long Island Sound area, the Great Lakes, and San Francisco Bay, and has also led an effort to develop a progress-tracking tool to facilitate accountability across the organization.

Previously, Joanna was a Senior Research Fellow in the Landscape Ecology Lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where she led the acquisition, development, and analysis of regional spatial datasets that provided the foundation for a Landscape Conservation Design in the Northeastern US. This collaborative project involved nearly 50 stakeholders from 20 NGOs, government agencies, and universities. Joanna’s prior research includes spatial modeling and strategic conservation planning for a variety of taxa including sea turtles, vascular plants, birds, and moths.

She has held positions at the World Resources Institute, the American Museum of Natural History, Columbia University’s Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, the University of Maryland College Park, The University of Massachusetts Amherst, and has worked as a consultant for the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She holds a Ph.D. in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Master’s degree in Environmental Studies from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.