The EMA Program receives guidance from a Science Advisory Panel consisting of scientific researchers and professionals.  Their perspectives guide EMA’s scientific undertakings by providing expert opinions to focus research needs and methodologies.

Robert Breunig

The Director of the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) in Flagstaff since 2004.  Dr. Breunig worked at the Museum of Northern Arizona from 1975–1982 as the museum’s educator, curator, and head of the department of anthropology. Before returning to MNA, Dr. Breunig worked as the Chief Curator and Deputy Director at the Heard Museum, Executive Director of the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Executive Director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in California, as Executive Director of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Wallace Covington

The Director of NAU’s Ecological Restoration Institute and a Regents’ professor in Forestry.  He has served as professor of Forest Ecology in the School of Forestry at NAU since 1984. He has received national and international recognition for his work in forest ecosystem health, restoration ecology, and fire effects on forest ecosystems. He was recognized as Outstanding Teaching Scholar by NAU in 1990 for his dedication to involving undergraduates in his research projects and bringing research results into the classroom

Gary Nabhan

The Director of the Center for Sustainable Environments (CSE) at NAU.  In his position, Nabhan is responsible for coordinating an array of environmentally oriented programs and initiatives which bridge the NAU campus with the surrounding region. He is also a tenured professor in Applied Indigenous Studies and the Center for Environmental Sciences and Education, and helps to oversee the Graduate Certificate program in Conservation Ecology.

Tom Sisk

An Associate Professor of Ecology at NAU. He received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University in 1992, where he later taught. In 2001, he was awarded the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program Fellowship. He is director of the Lab of Landscape Ecology and Conservation Biology at NAU. The lab addresses conservation issues through basic and applied research in ecology.

Larry Stevens

An independent consulting ecologist and an adjunct faculty member of Prescott College and the Department of Biological Sciences at NAU.  Stevens works closely with Grand Canyon Wildlands Council and is an Honorary Curator of Ecology and Conservation Collection at the Museum of Northern Arizona.  He is an avid natural historian and river runner, and has spent the past 30 years engaged in ecological research on rivers in the American Southwest. 

Tom Whitham

The Director of the Merriam-Powell Center for Environmental Research and a Regents’ professor in biology at Northern Arizona University.  His research interests are population and community ecology, ecological genetics and plant-herbivore interactions. His recent work has focused on cottonwood riparian communities and pinyon-juniper woodlands.