SWSP STAFF

FIELD CREWS

Melanie is the Program Director for the IAE’s Southwest office. IAE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving native species and habitats through restoration, research, and education. Melanie has been with IAE since 2001 and has been expanding the scope of the native plant materials programs, building collaborative projects with conservation partners, farmers, and tribes, and implementing large scale habitat restoration and recovery projects for rare plants and butterflies. In 2002 she helped launch the Native Seed Network website that links buyers and sellers of native seed throughout the United States. Currently Melanie is focused on developing collaborative conservation programs for the southwest and is dedicated to growing the Southwest Seed Partnership to improve the supply of native seed for restoration and rehabilitation efforts in NM and AZ. She received her Master of Science degree in Botany from the University of British Columbia (1997) and Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of New Mexico (1992).

Hollis is the Southwest Seed Partnership Coordinator at IAE’s Southwest Office. She works to support the development of adaptive native seeds for partners in the southwest. Hollis has over eight years of experience integrating the intersections of art, ecological design, conservation, and education. She earned her Master in Landscape Architecture (MLA) from the University of New Mexico in 2022 where she focused on centering plant-human relationships through ecocultural restoration strategies for orphaned well pads. She also has a Master in Fine Art (MFA) from UNM in Art & Ecology and a BA from Colorado College in Art and with a minor in Anthropology. Outside work, Hollis spends time collaborating on environmental art projects and learning from her garden.

Katy is the Assistant Branch Director for IAE’s Southwest Office in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She leads restoration and monitoring projects for native plants and animals, helps manage the branch’s daily operations, and supports the SWSP by forming partnerships with native plant nurseries. Katy earned her B.S. from the University of Vermont and her PhD from Kansas State University, where she studied the effects of weather and land management on grassland birds. Prior to joining IAE, she led research teams for over five years on a variety of monitoring projects including plants, streams, invertebrates, and birds. In her free time, she likes hiking, snacking, and doing crossword puzzles.

Sophia is an Ecologist with the Southwest Office where she assists partners and seasonal crews with plant material collection and restoration efforts. She has worked six seasons of botanical field work, including jobs collecting rare plant demographic data, vegetation monitoring, restoration and seed collection. Before moving to Santa Fe she was working in Carlsbad, NM as the contract botanist developing skills in NEPA, rare plant conservation efforts, and program management. If not botanizing at work or in their free time, they are probably knitting, biking or daydreaming about their next adventure.  

Lani is the Plant Materials Ecologist at IAE’s Southwest Office. She is responsible for cleaning and processing seeds collected from native plants across the southwest, managing the SWSP database, and leading seed collection in pollinator habitat restoration projects. Lani completed a BS in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from Rice University and has previously worked for the USDA Agricultural Research Service and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. She has done field work in areas across the US before joining IAE in New Mexico in 2023.

Mia Brann is a Restoration Technician at IAE's Southwest Office. She is responsible for supporting restoration and recovery projects for a variety of plants, pollinators, and vertebrates and collaborating on education and outreach events. She coordinates with the Southwest Seed Partnership on restoration needs through seed projection analyses, seed collection support, and seed cleaning and processing. She received her B.S. in Plant Science at Purdue University in 2021 and her M.S. in Biology from Northern Arizona University in 2024, where her research was focused on disturbance ecology of an endangered forb in southeastern Arizona. Her passion for restoration began during an internship at Haleakalā National Park on Maui where she was immersed in the fight for conservation in the heart of the extinction capital of the world. She loves learning new plant names and spending as much time as she can in nature. In her free time, she enjoys backpacking, sewing, cooking, and playing with her two kittens.

 The Southwest Seed Partnership is managed by the Institute for Applied Ecology working closely with our partners.