Kelsey Ekholm joined the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition in February 2023 as the program Ecologist.

Kelsey was born and raised in Virginia where she earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Christopher Newport University (CNU) in 2013. During her undergraduate education at CNU, she began working in the bat research lab, analyzing videos collected in the Philippines by a graduate student. Her love of bats and research blossomed quickly from that point, and she took that passion out into the field, collecting data for numerous bat monitoring projects and conducting biological surveys of abandoned mines for closure recommendations throughout the western U.S.

Still curious and wanting to learn more, Kelsey then pursued a master’s degree in environmental science from CNU, which she completed in 2018. Her thesis focused on the roosting affinities of the then-endangered lesser long-nosed bat in southern AZ and NM. Her work contributed to the de-listing of this species. During this time, she also helped with another graduate student’s project focusing on demographics and colony size variation of Mexican free-tailed bats at a large cave roost in Eastern Nevada.

After spending so many summers and school breaks working in the west, Kelsey had fallen in love with the desert, mountains, and wildlife and decided to make it her home. With her bat expertise, she began working at Great Basin National Park as a wildlife biological science technician, conducting a variety of wildlife surveys but focusing on bat acoustics and roosting affinities. Eventually, her role at the park shifted from monitoring wildlife to plants, where she found a whole new appreciation for the complexity of the Great Basin region. Her work with plants was focused largely on monitoring burned and treated areas, studying endemic high-elevation plants, and treating invasive species.

After about 6 years of working at the park, Kelsey is excited to begin her journey with ENLC and use her skills as a biologist to work on projects that will make a difference on the landscape.