MESM 2025
Pronouns: she/her
Bio
Priscilla Ta spent her childhood exploring nature preserves in the San Francisco Bay Area and developed a passion to protect these spaces. Her curiosity for how to manage natural spaces in the face of climate change and human impact motivated her to pursue a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine in 2017. While there, she interned for the Center for Environmental Biology (CEB) and investigated how non-native plant removal increased native plant cover of invaded coastal sage scrub communities. Her research earned her the Robert Ernst Prize in Plant Biology from the School of Biological Sciences. After graduating, Priscilla continued working for CEB as a field research specialist, supporting long-term conservation and restoration research in the Nature Reserve of Orange County. She collaborated with local and state agencies to design experiments investigating strategies to restore degraded plant communities and inform land management practice. Specializing in Conservation Planning at the Bren School, Priscilla hopes to expand her knowledge in natural resource management of terrestrial systems. She aims to communicate the importance of building climate-resilient landscapes to promote biodiversity and for future generations to enjoy.