Jamie Miller
Pronouns: she/her
Education
BS, Ecology and Systematic Biology, Biological Science, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
MS, Master of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara
Year Admitted
2023
Research Areas
coastal dune and beach ecology, restoration, wildlife conservation
Faculty Advisors
Bruce Kendall
Bio
Jamie is a PhD student studying restoration ecology and wildlife population dynamics in the coastal dune ecosystem. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Systematic Biology from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and has worked as a wildlife biologist on the central coast for over 15 years. She is passionate about wildlife conservation and started her career by tracking California condors at Hi Mountain Lookout and studying kangaroo rat ecology in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes and Carrizo Plains National Monument. Looking to expand her work abroad, she spent time in the tropics studying avian demography and breeding biology in the Amazon basin and Andean cloud forest in Peru, banding forest birds in Hawai’i, and studying mantled howler monkey foraging ecology in Costa Rica. For several years, she has worked for Point Blue Conservation Science at Vandenberg Space Force Base, studying snowy plover productivity and survivorship and coastal dune ecology. She is a Bren alum, earning her MESM degree in 2020, specializing in conservation planning and environmental data science. Her Master’s thesis involved updating habitat connectivity assessments for The Nature Conservancy and the Staying Connected Initiative in the Adirondack Mountains. In her work, she strives to integrate sustainable land use practices, evidence-based management and policy decisions, and public outreach to protect both the natural environment and human communities. When not climbing sand dunes looking for plover chicks on Vandenberg’s beaches, she enjoys native plant gardening, harboring native bees in her yard, baking goodies with locally-grown fruit, and photographing wild things.