Dr Paul Elsen

I am the Director of Conservation Planning at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and have over 15 years of experience in conducting scientific research as an ecologist, conservation biologist, and spatial analyst. Much of my work focuses on understanding and addressing the impacts of climate and land use change on the environment. I combine large geospatial datasets with field observations, climate projections, and biodiversity databases and use remote sensing and statistical models to answer research questions and provide decision support to stakeholders at landscape, national, and global scales.

My recent work has focused particularly on providing technical and analytical support to guide decision-making around interventions to increase resilience and adaptive capacity of ecosystems and vulnerable people. In this context, I have worked on projects in diverse geographies and ecosystems, including in the United States, Mexico, Belize, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Republic of Congo, India, Afghanistan, Australia, and Fiji.

Prior to joining WCS, I held postdoctoral positions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UC Berkeley, and Princeton University, and received a PhD from Princeton and a BA from UC Berkeley.