The Texas Tech University System Board of Regents approved the academic advancement of an outstanding wildlife ecologist within Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources during their latest meeting (Feb. 29). Kerry Griffis-Kyle was promoted from Associate Professor to Full Professor, effective Sept. 1.

“I'm honored to receive the promotion, especially as the first woman to earn tenure and the first woman to be promoted to full professor in my department,” Griffis-Kyle said. “I look forward to continuing to support excellence and inclusiveness in natural resources research and education with my esteemed colleagues in the Department of Natural Resources Management and in the Davis College.”

Griffis-Kyle joined the Texas Tech faculty in 2008. Her research program broadly addresses questions related to biodiversity and conservation especially related to water resources for wildlife. Much of her laboratory's work is focused on evaluating how anthropogenic stressors, including climate change, are affecting wetlands, wetland dependent species, and other sensitive natural resources, as well as designing strategies that help natural resource managers mitigate for these issues.

She uses an interdisciplinary approach to address management driven research questions in arid and semi-arid regions. Work from her lab combines basic and theoretic approaches; integrating population ecology, landscape ecology, animal behavior, and conservation biology to address research questions on a variety of taxa.

Prior joining the Department of Natural Resources Management, Griffis-Kyle was on the adjunct and graduate faculty in New Mexico State University's Department of Fish, Wildlife & Conservation Ecology.

In addition, she served as a postdoctoral research fellow studying the effects of livestock and livestock management on amphibian breeding site selection in arid grasslands within that department. Griffis-Kyle worked as a graduate research assistant in Syracuse University's Department of Biology, Utah State University's Ecology Program, and Northern Arizona University's Department of Forestry.

A native of Ohio, she received her bachelor's degree in wildlife ecology from the University of Florida, and her master's degree in forestry from Northern Arizona University. Her doctorate in biology is from Syracuse University. She's a member of The Wildlife Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Ecological Society of America, and is affiliated with the South Central Climate Science and Adaptation Center. 

CONTACT: Clint Krehbiel, Dean, Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2808 or Clint.Krehbiel@ttu.edu

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