Walsh Reddy, Sheila M

Sheila M.W. Reddy, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, The Nature Conservancy

Sheila Reddy brings expertise in ecology, economics, and policy to The Nature Conservancy (TNC), where she focuses on the science of how ecosystems and economies are interrelated and how to improve environmental decision making. This research is aimed at helping TNC and its partners identify new conservation strategies that benefit people and nature. As a science lead for the TNC-Dow Collaboration, Sheila is developing methods to integrate the value of nature into business decisions. This collaboration was recently awarded the Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnerships from Harvard. Sheila is also engaged in the Science Impact Project, merging behavioral economics and conservation science.

Sheila is dedicated to communicating ecosystem services science. In addition to publishing in scientific journals, her research has been featured in text books and popular media outlets, such as Time, NPR, and Change.org, informing businesses, governments, and local stakeholders. She is also a member of the Environmental Advisory Board for the town of Carrboro, North Carolina.

Prior to joining TNC, Sheila was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Economics at Brown University, where she studied sustainable fisheries in Mexico. She also served as a socioeconomics expert on the Phoenix Islands Protected Area for Conservation International. While working on her Ph.D., Sheila was a visiting scientist at the Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics, Sweden and the Ministry of Fisheries, Republic of Kiribati. She also worked with World Wildlife Fund in the Mesoamerican Reef to incorporate coral bleaching sensitivity into marine reserve design.

Sheila holds a doctorate from the interdisciplinary conservation program at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in affiliation with the Department of Economics, University of California-San Diego (2009) and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. Sheila has been the recipient of a CHANS Fellowship, an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, an NSF IGERT Fellowship, and an NSF GK-12 Fellowship.