Help SW CASC Welcome Two New Team Members!
The SW CASC has hired two new staff members on the USGS side of the partnership. Amber Pairis (Climate Science Alliance) joins us as a Partnership Liaison, and Molly Hunter (University of Arizona) as our Research Manager. Welcome Amber and Molly!
Amber Pairis is a long-time partner of the SW CASC, and we are excited that she will be joining us at 0.5FTE. Amber is the Director of the Climate Science Alliance, where she focuses on building a science focused network of leaders, scientists, and managers focused on sharing ecosystem-based resiliency approaches to safeguard communities and natural resources from climate change. In other roles, Amber has served as the Assistant Secretary for Climate Change-California Natural Resources Agency and as the Climate Change Advisor for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Amber has a PhD in Environmental Studies from Antioch University New England. In her role as Partnership Liaison at the SW CASC, Amber will help coordinate research, communication, training, and other outreach activities to support science based decision making that advances adaptation and resilience, with a specific focus on collaborative community-based projects and partnerships with Tribal communities.
As SW CASC Research Manager, Molly will track progress on research projects, assist with RFP development and proposal review, facilitate the synthesis of science findings to inform communication efforts, and provide general science advice to the SW CASC. Molly will work for the SWCASC at 0.25FTE, while maintaining her Associate Research Professor position with the University of Arizona School of Natural Resources and the Environment. Molly’s work focuses on fire ecology and management and she serves as the primary science advisor for the Joint Fire Science Program. Prior to the University of Arizona, Molly was an Associate Research Professor in the School of Forestry at Northern Arizona University, where she helped establish the Southwest Fire Science Consortium. Molly has a PhD in Forest Science from Colorado State University and a BS in Plant Biology from the University of California at Davis.