Melissa Mark
Director of Conservation Programming
Evaluation Team & Education Advisors
Previous Instructional Staff
DDCSP@UW is grateful to every staff member who has shaped and impacted the work we do today.
Melissa Mark (she/hers) was born in California to a first-generation Peruvian mother and an Anglo American father. She has lived in California, Alaska, New York, Nicaragua, Chile, Brazil, Arizona, and now Washington. She graduated UC Santa Cruz where she studied Psychobiology and Theater Arts. She completed her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, followed by a National Science Foundation Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Columbia University, during which she conducted research on birds living on shade coffee farms in Nicaragua. She also engaged in community-driven research projects and capacity-building to support the development of avian tourism in rural coffee-growing regions, and served as a Nicaragua Fulbright Scholar developing place-based environmental education curriculum. Melissa continues to engage in research on avian ecology and evolution, as well as on the socio-ecological impacts of climate change on coffee farms in Latin America. Prior to joining DDCSP@UW in 2020, she led the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at Northern Arizona University for four years. Melissa enjoys providing transformative experiences for scholars through the exploration and practice of inclusive conservation.
