Karen Holl
Dr. Holl is currently chairing the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Professor and Chair, Environmental Studies
University of California, Santa Cruz
Dr. Karen Holl is a leader in restoration ecology. Her research focuses on understanding ecological factors that slow ecosystem recovery from human disturbance and using this information to improve restoration efforts. For over a decade, Dr. Holl has been on the faculty in the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz where she is currently chair of the department.
Dr. Holl directs large-scale restoration experiments in collaboration with land managers and farmers in tropical montane forest in Costa Rica and in riparian forest along the Sacramento River in California. In addition, she has studied the restoration of chaparral and grassland ecosystems in California; tropical forests in several countries in Latin America; and hardwood forests in the eastern United States. In all these systems she works with land owners, land managers, and policy makers to implement the results of her research.
Dr. Holl is co-director of the Center for Tropical Research on Ecology, Agriculture, and Development, the main goal of which is to train students and practitioners from tropical countries to be leaders in developing environmental solutions. She serves on the advisory board for various public and private land management agencies, and is the associate editor of the Island Press Restoration Ecology book series.