Title: Director of Southern Regional Extension Forestry
Employer: University of Georgia
After graduating from the Plant Biology program in 1999, Leslie had many interesting natural resource jobs (& adventures) including Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya, forest firefighter/biological technician in New Mexico, research tech in Alaska and most recently working within the Cooperative Extension System focused on forestry and based at the University of Georgia (another landgrant). As a director of the Southern Regional Extension Forestry, she fosters communication and collaboration across a 13 state region with other university forestry Extension faculty, state & federal agencies and natural resource focused-non-governmental organizations. Her work focuses on forest products, prescribed fire, forest landowners & more! She is the author of the Guidebook for Prescribed Burning in the Southern Region, which helps landowners and natural resource professionals to conduct safe controlled burns.
Leslie’s time in IB gave her the scientific foundation to launch and build her career in forestry. Working in Cooperative Extension allows her to apply and communicate her knowledge from the IB program to make a positive impact on the public.