MESM 2022
Bio
Iris Foxfoot graduated with highest honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Global Studies and a minor in Anthropology. Upon graduation, she accepted a summer internship surveying endangered frogs in the Sierra Nevada mountains. This experience was so formative that Iris spent five more years conducting wildlife surveys, culminating in a year in Ethiopia, where she managed the Guassa Gelada Research Project field station. During her time as a field station manager, Iris witnessed tremendous conflict between gelada monkeys, the focus species of the project, and local farmers. She began to contemplate the interplay between conservation and economic development and wanted to provide practical solutions that advanced both goals, particularly focusing on land-use change and wildlife conservation. This led Iris to Bren, where she is specializing in Conservation Planning with a focus on science communication and hopes to develop and implement more sustainable land use practices in forestry and agriculture.