About Maria's Work
Maria is Professor of Rangeland Ecology and Management at Colorado State University and leader of the Rangeland Social-Ecological Systems Lab group. The RSES lab does ecological and social science research and engagement related to impacts of and adaptation to climate change in pastoral systems, community-based natural resource management, local and traditional ecological knowledge and knowledge integration, rangeland decision making and adaptive management, and the human dimensions of rangeland systems. Maria's team works in Mongolia, the Western US (especially Colorado, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico) and Spain. In 2014 Maria was named 'Honorable Champion of Agriculture and Food Industry of Mongolia' by Mongolia's Minister of Agriculture in recognition of over 20 years of applied research and capacity building work in Mongolia. She also received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Society for Range Management for her work on coupled human-natural systems in rangelands. Maria and her husband Devin, a district court judge, have two children, Clara (16) and Joaquin (11).
