Research Team

Hannah Wittman

Professor
University of British Columbia

Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, Land and Food Systems, Biodiversity Research Centre

Naomi Schwartz 

Assistant Professor
University of British Columbia

Geography, Biodiversity Research Centre

Claire Kremen

Professor
University of British Columbia

Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, Biodiversity Research Centre, Zoology, President’s Excellence Chair in Biodiversity

Joséphine Gantois

Assistant Professor
University of British Columbia

Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, Land and Food Systems

Frederik Noack

Associate Professor
University of British Columbia

Land and Food Systems

Juliet Lu

Assistant Professor, University of British Columbia

Forest and Resources Management, School for Public Policy and Global Affairs

Matthew Mitchell

Assistant Professor
University of British Columbia

Land and Food Systems, Forest Resources Management

Jennifer Grenz

Assistant Professor
University of British Columbia

Forest Resources Management

Sean Smukler

Associate Professor
University of British Columbia

Applied Biology & Soil Science
Chair, Agriculture and the Environment
Director of the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm

Jonathan Proctor

Assistant Professor
University of British Columbia

Land and Food Systems

Chelsea Little

Assistant Professor
Simon Fraser University

School of Environmental Science & Department of Biological Sciences

Renee Prasad

Department Head & Associate Professor
University of the Fraser Valley

Agriculture

Alex Lyon

Faculty
Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Sustainable Agriculture

Bhavita Ragoo

Bhavita is a PhD student at LFS under the supervision of Prof. Jonathan Proctor and Frederik Noack. She holds a Msc in Environmental Economics from Toulouse School of Economics and a Bcom in Economics from the University of Cape Town. Prior to joining PERCS, she was a predoctoral research fellow at the University of Bologna working on the network effects of carbon pricing. During her PhD she plans to work on the broad topics of agriculture and fisheries, exploring their links with climate change and assessing the effectiveness of relevant environmental policies. 

Matt Tsuruda

Matt is a second year PhD student in the Plant Science program at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Prior to beginning his PhD, he completed his MSc in Plant Science at UBC, focusing on the impact of semi-natural habitat restoration on the diversity and abundance of pest and beneficial insects in agro-ecosystems. The focus of his PhD project will be on the use of insect bioindicators to assess the success/functioning of agricultural restoration efforts and diversification practices. To this end, he will be sampling insects and ecosystem services in perennial agricultural elements like grassland set-asides, as well as in diversified farming systems like rotationally-managed cattle farms in Alberta. The goal of this project will be to develop a rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective method for assessing the benefits of perennial landscape elements and diversified farming techniques.

Yao Yao

Yao is a PhD student in Prof. Risa Sargent’s lab at LFS. She holds a MRes in Ecosystems and Environmental Changes from Imperial College London and a BEng in Environmental Science from Jinan University. Yao’s previous research explored how pesticide usage and changing temperatures affect the physiology of bumblebees. For her PhD, she plans to work on restoring pollination service in intensive agricultural landscapes, exploring how perennial plant restoration impacts bumblebee colony health, reproduction and behaviours.

Hannah Anderson

Hannah is a MSc student in the plant science program in Dr. Juli Carrillo’s lab at UBC, Vancouver. Her masters research focuses on nocturnal pollination by moths in berry agro-ecosystems in the Lower Mainland. Her work aims to identify species of moths that are potentially important pollinators for strawberry and blueberry crops, and the surrounding landscapes that support production. In January, she will be starting her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Juli Carrillo, where Hannah will be investigating the behavioural and morphological changes of moths in changing environments and restored habitats.

Paul Fisher

Paul is an MSc student in the plant science program in Dr. Juli Carrillo’s lab at UBC, Vancouver. His research will focus on parasitoid wasp diversity in agro-ecosystems and how they are affected by habitat amendments such as hedgerows and grassland set-asides. Paul previously worked as a research technician in Dr. Carrillo’s lab, where he identified parasitoid wasps for other research projects after completing his undergraduate degree at UBC in Environmental Science.

Alexis Graves

I am an MSc Student in the Indigenous Ecology Lab in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC. I am interested in the interplay between plant species and their environment, particularly the ecological impact of invasive weeds. I am excited to join PERCS project under Dr. Jennifer Grenz to pursue scientific research which makes a positive difference in the world. Working with a diverse network of farmers, NGOs, and academics from diverse backgrounds, my research investigates ecological co- benefits of hedgerows. Specifically, my research investigates methods of hedgerow establishment and the impact of hedgerow introduction on weeds and soil ecology. This study aims to inform methods for hedgerow introduction as well as investigating co- benefits to encourage their introduction on farms. I am excited to study the establishment and ecological co-benefits of hedgerows in order to provide a robust scientific basis for hedgerow establishment and ecological co-benefits..

Yiyi Zhang

Yiyi is a postdoc focusing on the identification and mapping of agricultural landscapes with various perennial planting features and benefits. Yiyi received her PhD in Geography from McGill University,  with a thesis on quantifying ecosystem service flows. Her thesis provides methods and geovisual and quantitative measures that connect ecology, agricultural practices and human wellbeing. Yiyi has previously worked at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and Statistics Canada where she identified and developed data and tools for the accounting of environmental resources and nutrient flows. Yiyi holds a BSc in Human Geography and Urban-Rural Planning from Fuzhou University and an MA in Geography from University of Northern Iowa.

Jeff Liebert

Jeff is a Research Associate with the PERCS project, where he will contribute to a policy synthesis and mixed-methods analysis of the socio-economic drivers of, and deterrents to, perennial planting adoption. Using a participatory approach, Jeff will work closely with PERCS researchers, partner organizations, farmers, and other stakeholders and rights-holders to co-develop knowledge and inform place-based policies. As an interdisciplinary researcher, his prior work has covered predictive modeling of cover cropping co-benefits; lock-ins, path dependency, and resistance to change in agri-food systems; and labour challenges with agroecological practices. Jeff was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at UBC and McGill University, and he holds a PhD from Cornell University.

Keri Bowering

Keri is a Postdoctoral Fellow working with the Carbon Team on the PERCS project to quantify the carbon balance of hedgerows and riparian buffers. She received her PhD in Environmental Sciences from Memorial University, studying the vulnerability of boreal forest soils to climate change. Her thesis demonstrated the connection between the carbon and hydrological cycles and how reductions in snowpack depth contribute to losses of forest soil carbon as dissolved organic matter.  Before starting at UBC, she worked as a research assistant at Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, testing methods of sustainable crop production, pesticide runoff mitigation, and the building of organic carbon in agricultural soils. She holds a BSc from Vancouver Island University where she completed undergraduate research in the VIU Biometeorology Lab.

Jikai Zhao

Jikai is a PhD student in Dr. Naomi Schwartz’s lab at UBC, Vancouver. Prior to pursuing his PhD, he received his Master’s degree in Geography from Beijing Forestry University (BJFU), focusing on the spatial distribution patterns of vegetation and their impacts on desertification and carbon use efficiency. His PhD project will focus on quantifying the spatial and temporal dynamics of carbon sequestration by perennial plant cultivation in the study area.

Carina Isbell

Carina is a PhD student in the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability under the supervision of Dr. Hannah Wittman. She holds an MS in Community Development and Applied Economics from the University of Vermont. Her prior work has focused on agrobiodiversity conservation and the role that values play in motivating farmers and gardeners to engage in seed saving and producer-led seed sharing networks. She also is deeply passionate about agricultural conservation more generally and has led research on how to enhance the technical assistance system for conservation across the United States. For her PhD, she plans to focus on food movements and their collaborative capacity to forward on-farm sustainability practices. 

Lars Sturm

Lars is a PhD student in the PERCS project from Dr. Chelsea Little’s lab at SFU. He is studying the impact of riparian perennials on aquatic ecosystems and their carbon cycle interactions in agricultural areas. He holds a BSc and MSc in environmental sciences from ETH Zuerich with a major in ecology and evolution. He has previously worked on the ecology of killer yeasts, and on the invasive quagga mussel and its impact on Swiss benthic macro invertebrates.

Jonah Gilbert

Jonah is a PhD student at LFS in Prof. Jonathan Proctor’s lab. He holds a MA in statistics from Columbia University and a BA in Economics and Mathematics from Amherst College. Before coming to UBC, he was a predoctoral research professional at the Climate Impact Lab at the University of Chicago working on the social cost of greenhouse gases. During his PhD, Jonah plans on using satellite imagery to analyze adaptation responses to climate change in agriculture. 

Annika Levaggi

Annika is a masters student at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability (IRES) working under the guidance of Dr. Hannah Wittman and Dr. Juliet Lu. Her research focuses at the intersection of food sovereignty, alternative education, and rural livelihoods. Originally from Northern California, Annika now calls Chilean Patagonia home where her research is largely based. Previously, Annika earned her BSc in Environmental Science and Food Systems at the University of California, Berkeley and was a Fulbright scholar at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile’s Center for Local Development. Annika continues to collaborate as a research affiliate of the ECOS Lab in Southern Chile, where she previously worked on a community based participatory research project integrating traditional ecological knowledge and foraging practices into forest management.

Ingrid Reis Campos

Ingrid is a PhD student in the PERCS project under Dr. Chelsea Littles’s supervision at SFU. She investigates how perennial plantings affect the sequestration and storage of carbon in waterways in agricultural lands. She holds a BSc in biological sciences and an MSc in ecology and conservation from the Federal University of Para (Brazil). During her studies, she aimed to understand the impact of human activities on aquatic insect communities in freshwater ecosystems.

Naama Rahamim

I am a PhD student in Jeanine Rhemtulla’s Ecology and Livelihoods lab in the Department of Forestry at UBC. My research combines my background in landscape ecology and remote sensing to study land use and landscape composition at broad spatial scales. I hold both a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Ecology from Ben Gurion University, Israel. In my BSc, I investigated how land use shapes the diet composition of barn owls, and for my MSc I used remote sensing to analyze how land use and landscape composition influence rodent pest densities within the fields in an agro-ecological systems. Before starting my PhD, I worked for three years as a remote sensing analyst, developing soil moisture maps from SAR satellite data.

Chloe Meyer

Chloe is a MSc student in the UBC Faculty of Forestry under Dr. Matthew Mitchell. She studies how agricultural practices such as hedgerows and pest management techniques impact bat populations on the landscape. Chloe holds a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic. Before coming to UBC, Chloe worked for two summers for the US National Park Service at Acadia National Park, where she worked on the wildlife team study bats and other local fauna. In partnership with the biologists at Acadia National Park Chloe completed two independent research projects analyzing bat population health post white nose syndrome. She hopes to continue looking at individual and population health of bat populations during her master’s and beyond. 

Vicky Baker

As Project Manager of the PERCS project, Vicky’s role involves overseeing the implementation of the PERCS NSERC-SSHRC Alliance grant, focusing on developing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating systems to meet organizational priorities. Vicky brings over 17 years of experience at UBC, primarily as a Research Project Manager, where she managed complex interdisciplinary SSHRC Partnership Grants and other funding. She has a strong background in providing administrative leadership to ensure smooth project activities, resource management, staffing, and finances. Additionally, she serves as a Sustainability Coordinator at UBC. Vicky holds a BSc in Environment, specializing in Biodiversity and Conservation, from McGill University.

Sarah Knoerr

Sarah is a MSc student in Dr. Risa Sargent’s lab. Her master’s research focuses on the role of grassland set-asides as nesting habitat for bumble bees in the Lower Mainland. Sarah previously worked as a bumble bee conservation technician in Ontario after completing her BSc in Biology at the University of Ottawa. In the PERCS project, she facilitates research projects from the Plant-Pollinator Global Change lab and coordinates efforts with other PERCS research teams.

Carly McGregor

Carly is a research technician in Dr. Juli Carrillo’s lab in Land & Food Systems. She holds an MSc in Resources, Environment & Sustainability from UBC, and a BSc in Ecology from Concordia University. Her graduate thesis research focused on evaluating agroecosystem habitat features, such as hedgerows and grassland set-asides, for their pollinator conservation potential in the Lower Mainland of BC. Carly currently manages the Plant-Insect Ecology and Evolution lab and coordinates research across PERCS collaborations.

Isabel Rodríguez Rojas

Isabel was a GIS technician with the PERCS project, focusing on spatial analysis in agricultural landscapes across British Columbia. She recently graduated from the University of British Columbia with a BSc in Natural Resources Conservation, specializing in Science and Management. Her role involved conducting preliminary spatial analyses and creating visualizations to examine landscape structure and crop gradients. This work supported the identification of suitable experimental field sites by enhancing understanding of landscape configuration and crop diversity.