Sedona Ryan

Research Coordinator, Center for Environmental Modeling for Policy Development

Biography

Sedona Ryan earned a B.A. in biology at Vassar College and spent three years conducting conservation-focused research in amphibian ecology, including independent research projects on predator-induced phenotypic plasticity and the impact of water chemistry on tree frogs. Alongside this, she was selected for a research fellowship, where she completed a study on protecting coral reefs in the face of climate change. She also took part in an NSF-funded research initiative at the Vassar College herbarium preserving plant specimens through the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections Program. Additionally, she earned a minor in anthropology, and she had the opportunity to study human-environment interactions and wildlife management at The School for Field Studies in Kenya. She is the recipient of the Kate Roberts Prize in Biology.

Ryan continued conducting high-level NSF-funded scientific work as a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill through the Environment, Ecology, and Energy Program (E3P), earning an M.S. in ecology. She explored hybridization-facilitated range expansion in amphibians with genetic sequencing and hybrid breeding and she spearheaded a field collections project spanning three states. She also served as the lead teaching assistant for an environment and society course. She is a two-time recipient of the Nancy Skinner Clark Fellowship for Graduate Study.

Ryan serves as the research coordinator for UNC Institute for the Environment’s Center for Environmental Modeling for Policy Development.

Education

M.S., Ecology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2024
B.A., Biology, correlate in Anthropology, Vassar College, 2022