Elise Gornish

Dr. Elise Gornish is a Cooperative Extension Specialist in Ecological Restoration at the University of Arizona. Her work largely focuses on vegetation management in arid systems with a focus on ecological restoration, weed management and soil management. She has published over 80 articles, given hundreds of talks and has been recently selected as an ESA Early Career Fellow.

Dr. Elise Gornish is a Cooperative Extension Specialist in Ecological Restoration at the University of Arizona. Her work largely focuses on vegetation management in arid systems with a focus on ecological restoration, weed management and soil management. She has published over 80 articles, given hundreds of talks and has been recently selected as an ESA Early Career Fellow. She is particularly interested in trait based restoration approaches, targeting multiple ecosystem services, weed management, and spatially patterned seeding. On 2013 she got her PhD on Ecology at the Florida State University.

Her current research foci includes addressing restoration and weed management strategies that mitigate effects of climate change (particularly warming & decreasing precipitation). She is also passionate about designing financially and logistically feasible restoration strategies. Dr. Gornish employs a variety of strategies to facilitate knowledge exchange, including organization of workshops and field days, development of online information portals and best management guidelines, public presentations and a strong social media presence.

In addition to vegetation management, Dr. Gornish is passionate about STEM inclusion and is also the Director of GALS (Girls on outdoor Adventure for Leadership and Science), that focuses on providing science learning and leadership opportunities to traditionally underserved female high school students through backcountry programming.