With the new fall semester came a change in department leadership. Lisa Naughton became chair, taking over for Kris Olds who served out his three-year term.

Professor Lisa Naughton has a long history with the department. She earned her undergraduate degree here in 1986 (Double BSc in Geography and Zoology), and a MSc in Geography in 1987, supervised by Prof. William Denevan (Emeritus).  After working 3 years with international conservation groups, she completed her PhD in Wildlife Ecology at UF-Gainesville before joining the UW Geography faculty in 1997. Her research interests concern the social dimensions of biodiversity conservation in the tropics, with particular emphasis on property rights and land tenure. She has long-term studies based in Uganda, Ecuador and Peru. Dr. Naughton has also been working on forest carbon policy issues for >10 years, including a year as Visiting Scientist at Princeton University’s Environmental Institute. More recently she served as PI (for UW Madison) on a USAID award focused on land tenure and livelihood issues in tropical forest carbon payment programs (REDD). She directed UW-Madison’s Land Tenure Center (2008-2012), and Chaired the Nelson Institute’s graduate program in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development (2006-2009). Although the majority of her work is based in tropical countries, she has built an active research program around wolf recovery in Wisconsin.

Lisa will guide the department through the summer of 2018. She looks forward to working with fellow Geographers on new revenue-building programs, professional and career development for students, and department outreach.