Personnel

Philip Rundel
RESERVE FACULTY DIRECTOR: Philip Rundel is a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, at UCLA. He has worked for 25 years on a variety of aspects of the ecology of chaparral and arid zone vegetation in California, as well as in Mediterranean-climate regions of Chile, South Africa, Australia and the Mediterranean Basin. He edits MEDICOS Newsletter providing a forum of communication between Mediterranean ecologists worldwide, and is edited a book on landscape degradation and biodiversity in Mediterranean-type ecosystems. In addition to these studies, Dr. Rundel also has worked extensively in studies of the ecology of dry tropical forests with ongoing field studies in Thailand and Brazil. He joined the faculty of UCLA in 1983 after 13 years on the faculty of UC Irvine. He teaches courses in ecology and evolutionary biology, plant adaptations to environmental stress, tropical ecology, and plant physiological ecology. He has edited books in the past on stable isotopes in ecological research, field methods in plant physiological ecology, and tropical alpine ecology, and among his many publications, has co-authored a book with Arthur Gibson at UCLA on the ecology of the Mojave Desert. Dr. Rundel is member-at-large on the UC Natural Reserve System Advisory Committee.

Carol Felixson
RESERVE DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION/COMMUNITY OUTREACH: In addition to her work with the Stunt Ranch Reserve, Carol Felixson also serves as the Docent and Communications Coordinator for the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden (MEMBG) at UCLA. Carol currently serves as an associate director on the board of the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains. She was an active contributor to the Los Angeles Times Reading by Nine literacy program. She wrote a monthly column for the Los Angeles Times Kids Page about the plants and animals found at the Reserve and in the Garden. Accompanying illustrations by children between the ages of 5-12 were unique to her articles. She also writes Carol's Corner, a regular column in the MEMBG newsletter, about the-goings-on in the garden. Felixson served as Manager and Public Information Officer for the State's Fire Recovery Center following the 1993 Malibu fire. She was a founding member of the Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness and for over three years wrote the emergency preparedness column for the Topanga Messenger newspaper. Felixson is a Los Angeles native who received a degree in Social Welfare from the University of Wisconsin and professional certification in Public Relations from UCLA Extension. Felixson is a member of the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

FACULTY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Richard F. Ambrose: Professor in the UCLA School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Director of the Environmental Science and Engineering Program, Dr. Ambrose is studying the effects of human activities on wetland ecosystems. He is currently studying the dynamics of fecal indicator bacteria in coastal wetlands and watersheds, including Malibu Lagoon and the Malibu Creek Watershed. He also continued his research into the effects of urbanization of stream ecosystems, with particular emphasis on the development of nuisance algal blooms and impacts on amphibians. Dr. Ambrose’s research also includes long-term monitoring of rocky intertidal communities in southern California. Ambrose conducts research on/around Stunt Ranch and the Malibu Creek watershed.

Jeanne E. Arnold: Professor of Anthropology at UCLA, Dr. Arnold is an archaeologist with a research focus on the American Pacific Coast. Her long-term research is on the California Channel Islands, where she investigates Island Chumash prehistory and early history. She is currently writing a new book on the archaeology of California and has published extensively on ancient political evolution, human responses to paleoenvironmental change, specialized technologies and production systems, and watercraft. She has also co-directed a collaborative (US-Canada) archaeological project in British Columbia and currently supervises an ethnoarchaeological project on modern Los Angeles households and uses of objects and home spaces.

Greg Okin: Assistant Professor, in the department of Geography, Dr. Okin’s research interests include geomorphology, plant-soil interactions, arid environments, nutrient cycling, spatial modeling, and remote sensing. Professor Okin. Professor Okin teaches courses in Physical Geography and Soils.

Thomas B. Smith: Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UCLA, and Director of the Center for Tropical Research, Institute of the Environment at UCLA. His research focuses on: 1. Mechanisms of speciation, 2. Ecological and evolutionary aspects of vertebrate-mediated seed dispersal in the maintenance and dynamics of rainforests, 3. Molecular genetic approaches to investigating microevolutionary divergence and population genetic structure of migrant birds, 4. Evolution of resource polymorphisms, 5. Ecology of disease, and 6. Conservation biology. Field sites include West Africa, North, South, and Central America, and Australia. In addition to his appointment in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, he is also the Director of the Center for Tropical Research (CTR).

UCLA REPRESENTATIVE TO THE UC NATURAL RESERVE SYSTEM:

Antony Orme: Professor in the Department of Geography at UCLA. His research interests include:Coastal Geomorphology (river-mouth morphodynamics, beach erosion, dunes), Watershed Geomorphology (mass movement, slope processes, sediment yields),Quaternary Environments (sea-level change, pluvial lakes), Geomorphology and Isostasy (relations to denudation and drainage systems), Tectonism and Environmental Change (impacts on climate, geomorphology, biogeography), Timescales of Environmental Change, Histories and Theories of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Coastal and Watershed Management

COORDINATOR OF THE COLD CREEK DOCENTS

Nancy Helsley is an environmental educator who formerly taught for the Los Angeles Unified School District and is the president of the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains. A long-time resident of the Cold Creek watershed, Nancy has proven to be a dedicated partner and friend to the UCLA Reserve from the time of its establishment in 1995. She continues to exert her devoted leadership in helping the docents to conduct chaparral ecology, early Chumash culture, geology/soils and watershed field programs at the Reserve for Los Angeles area schools. Nancy says, “From my perspective I'm just doing what is interesting and fun! I think our little program fills a real niche, a missing component in the education of most students, that of experiential outdoor activities. For the most part, not only they, but their parents and teachers, too, have no idea how the natural world functions!”

RESERVE DESIGN CONSULTANT

Lisa Pompelli serves as an exhibit designer and consultant for the UCLA Stunt Ranch Reserve. In 2004 she illustrated and designed, along with Dr. Phil Rundel, a large poster explaining the Mediterranean climate regions of the world. She has also created numerous other educational posters and maps focused on botany, ecology, climate and archaeology. Her illustrations have appeared in many books and publications including the LA Times, NY Times and National Geographic. She studied at Art Center College of Design and graduated with a degree in geography from UCLA. She currently enjoys teaching botanical illustration at the Huntington Botanical gardens where she has worked continuously since 1977.