Michelle C. Mack

Dr. Michelle Mack is a Professor in the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society and the Department of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University. She is an ecologist who studies the impacts of climate-sensitive disturbances, such as wildfire and abrupt permafrost thaw, on the dynamics of arctic and boreal ecosystems. Her work includes two decades of field research at the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Boreal and Arctic Longterm Ecological Research sites. She has produced more than 150 peer-reviewed publications in high-profile journals such as Nature and Science. She graduated from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, with a concurrent Bachelor of Science in Biology and Bachelor of Arts in Literature (1990). She received a doctorate in Integrative Biology (1998) from the University of California at Berkeley. Her experience in the Arctic started when she held an NSF postdoctoral-fellowship at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She spent 12 years on the Biology faculty at the University of Florida before moving to Northern Arizona University