The Steering Committee is tasked with developing and facilitating a long term vision and plan to advance the broader ecological forecasting community. The Steering Committee facilitates the EFI Strategic Plan and makes high-level decisions to support activities that will build our community of practice. Nominations for the next Steering Committee cohort will be accepted in February 2026.
Steering Committee Nomination Process and Terms
Anyone who is an EFI Member is allowed to be nominated or self-nominate to run for election. Nominees will be asked to provide a short (<1 page) statement about their goals for EFI and professional qualifications, which the election subcommittee will distribute prior to the elections. Find examples of previous candidate statements in the newsletters from 2025, 2024, 2023, and 2022.
Steering Committee terms are 2 years with the committee meeting once a month with an extended meeting once a year.
If you are not already a member, you are welcome to join the EFI community in this capacity by filling out this membership form.
See the current Steering Committee members below. Details about their terms and backgrounds will be shared in the April 1, 2025 newsletter.
Jason McLachlan is an ex-officio non-voting member and Jody Peters provides administrative assistance.
2025-2026 Steering Committee
Michael leads the Near-term Ecological Forecasting Initiative and the PEcAn Project. He is the Director of the grassroots efforts of the Ecological Forecasting Initiative and the Chair of the EFI Steering Committee.
In order for scientific tools and research to be innovative, the tools and methods need to be accessible to people who have been historically excluded and be culturally relevant. Antoinette is interested in working with historically excluded groups with limited internet access to make forecasting and data science accessible.
Korryn is broadly interested in combining near-term forecasting with One Health to predict and prevent the emergence and spread of infectious diseases that impact wildlife, domestic animals, and humans.
Cara is an ecophysiologist fascinated by research at the interface of animal energetics, behavior, and conservation, with key interests in how energy shapes patterns in ecology and influences species risk under human disturbance. She is a postdoctoral researcher and modelling the role of energetics in the emergence of life history patterns and population dynamics using physiological theory and agent-based modelling.
Michael's application area is in translation of ecological forecasts to actionable science for decision-making. Specifically, Michael has expertise in stakeholder engagement and decision support tool design and testing.
Alistair's research focus is on marine ecoforecasts for pelagic species, at seasonal time scales and marine heatwave forecasting.
Hannah studies how tree communities respond to changes in climate at centennial scales using a combination of fossilized pollen and data science.
Quinn works to predict the future of forest and freshwater ecosystems by combining observations and ecosystem models using statistical techniques. He is the PI of the EFI Research Coordination Network and he is leading the NEON Ecological Forecasting Challenge. He is a non-voting member on the EFI Steering Committee.
John has three interests including (1) developing accessible software protocols and tools for data visualization - prior and post an ecological forecast, (2) applying mathematical and statistical methods for data assimilation and ecological forecasts, and (3) developing the first two with a keen eye for undergraduate interdisciplinary education, primarily focused through the lens of undergraduate mathematics.
Jason is using experiments, paleo observations, model prediction, and prior studies in a Bayesian assimilation framework strengthen predictive forecasting of salt marshes. Jason is a non-voting member on the EFI Steering Committee.
Jody is the Program Manager of EFI. She coordinates EFI activities to promote collaboration and communication both within and outside of EFI. She is a non-voting member on the EFI Steering Committee.