Dr. Vicky Meretsky teaches conservation biology, climate change impacts on natural resources, graduate statistics, and graduate capstone courses. She has been with O'Neill since 1997 and holds affiliate appointments in the Department of Biology, the Maurer School of Law, the Integrated Program in the Environment, and the Russian and Eastern European Institute. Meretsky is a member of the Faculty Colloquium on Excellence in Teaching, and is science advisor to the Nature Conservancy and the Sycamore Land Trust in Indiana. She also serves on the Technical Advisory Committee on Herpetofauna for the Indiana Division of Fish and Wildlife.
Meretsky studies conservation science and policy at both single-species and landscape scales. Her research interests include conservation planning, ecology of rare species, integrating ecosystem and endangered species management with adaptive management, and impacts of climate change on each. Current research areas include conservation planning on public lands, impacts of state and federal planting policies on managed relocation under climate change, and methods of improving teaching and training of graduate students of science and policy. Previously Meretsky conducted research on California condors, Egyptian vultures, Indiana bats, and endangered species of the Grand Canyon including humpback chub and the Kanab ambersnail. Other experience includes studying northern spotted owls and conducting aerial videography of Arizona riparian areas and the Santa Clara wetland of Mexico.
Meretsky's teaching is highly regarded; she is a five-time winner of the Trustees Teaching Award at IU, three-time winner of the Teaching Excellence Recognition Award, and three-time winner of O'Neill's Outstanding Teaching Award. She has led O'Neill graduate students in capstone research projects for the National Council on Science and the Environment, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
Prior to joining IU, Meretsky worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a research biologist studying endangered species and ecosystem management in the Grand Canyon.
