Kate Freund

My research interests focus on how climate change combined with habitat fragmentation will endanger species and how we can incorporate warming predictions into wildlife management frameworks. For example, range shifting due to global warming may undermine the ability of protected areas to successfully protect species. I am currently designing my masters project in conjunction with the National Park Service in Washington State. Our goal is to develop a decision-making tool for Park managers based on geographically explicit information to project how vertebrate populations might change within their lands under future climate change.

I am originally from Eugene, Oregon, and plan to return to the West to work on wildlife management and climate change issues after graduation. Before coming to Yale, I spent four years working on wildlife and endangered species policy issues for the environmental group Earthjustice in Washington, DC. Prior to that, I spent a year conducting research on avian life-history behavior, based at the La Selva research station in Costa Rica. I received my B.A. from Pomona College in 2003, where I majored in Biology and Public Policy.