Katie Theoharides

Katie Theoharides Conservation Planning Associate


Areas of Expertise: Biodiversity and conservation planning, state wildlife action plans, invasive species, climate change, habitat fragmentation, farm bill conservation programs, land-use planning and conservation, green infrastructure, connectivity.

Katie focuses on the refinement and implementation phase of the state wildlife action plans (SWAPs). Her work supports the integration of conservation plans with land use planning, and she works to ensure that federal agency planning and management activities are better coordinated with conservation plans. Katie is examining linkages between the state wildlife action plans and farm bill conservation programs, evaluating the plans with regard to climate change, and analyzing financial incentives for conservation actions. Katie is also compiling geographic datasets that can be used to begin the process of identifying a national network of conservation lands.

Before joining Defenders in 2008, Katie worked at the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, helping to advance strong conservation policy proposed for the 2007/2008 farm bill. Katie has held various positions in the realm of field ecology and has experience working with local conservation commissions and land managers.

Katie received her B.A. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Dartmouth College where she studied invasive plants, conservation biology and climate change. She completed a M.S. in Environmental Biology at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Her thesis, published in 2007, focused on plant invasion across multiple scales and the interaction of plant invasion with globalization, habitat degradation, and climate change.

Contact Information
Phone: (202) 772-0229
Email: Katie.Theoharides@defenders.org