Jody Vogeler

With a strong background in field wildlife and vegetation research, Dr. Jody Vogeler has built her career integrating remote sensing data sets with field surveys to better understand forest disturbance dynamics and wildlife-habitat relationships at multiple spatial and temporal scales, as well as investigating additional ecological questions within various vegetation communities. Jody joined the NREL research community as a Research Scientist in 2018 and holds an Affiliate Faculty position in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability. Jody’s passion for exploring and understanding natural systems began in her childhood playground of the Ozark Mountains and scenic rivers of Missouri and grew while pursuing her B.S. degree in Fisheries and Wildlife from the University of Missouri-Columbia. During her undergraduate summers and for the several years following graduation, Jody explored the western US through various avian field research technician positions. She took this background in field wildlife research and began processing and exploring the utility of remote sensing datasets, specifically LiDAR and Landsat time series products, for characterizing forest wildlife habitat in her masters and PhD work (University of Idaho-Wildlife Resources advised by Dr. Kerri Vierling and Oregon State University-Forest Science advised by Dr. Warren Cohen, respectively). Following her PhD, she completed a Post Doc position at OSU, and held a 3-year Research Associate position at University of Minnesota. In her research position here at NREL, Jody works to develop ways to use remote sensing to better understand wildlife-habitat relationships, advance our understanding of forest disturbance dynamics, and provide spatial products for various management and conservation applications. She also is passionate about providing opportunities for graduate students and early career as well as experienced researchers within her research lab to improve their applied remote sensing skills on her various grant-funded research projects and gain experience working on collaborative interdisciplinary research teams.