Emily Renn
PhD Student
Northern Arizona University, School of Earth and Sustainability
Linkedin: Emily Renn
Emily is a Ph.D. student in the School of Earth and Sustainability at Northern Arizona University under the advisement of Dr. Duan Biggs. Her research interests include seeking innovative, inclusive, and interdisciplinary approaches to human-Mexican gray wolf coexistence to ensure that wolves can thrive in self-sustaining and ecologically effective populations across the U.S. Southwest. She is the coordinator for the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Task Force on Integrating Human-Wildlife Coexistence into Protected and Conserved Areas Standards.
Prior to her Ph.D. program, Emily completed her B.S. in Biology with an emphasis in Fish and Wildlife Management and her M.S. degree in Biology with a focus on wildlife conservation. Her master’s graduate research focused on the survival success of translocated Gunnison's prairie dogs. She continues to coordinate prairie dog translocations for colonies threatened by development or destruction to reestablish extirpated wildland colonies. Emily has worked with many species of mammals and birds in northern Arizona as a field biological technician, researcher, and environmental educator. Most recently, Emily served as the Executive Director of the Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project, a nonprofit organization she led for 14 years, building community support for wolf recovery in suitable wolf habitat. She continues to serve as a board member and the translocation/coexistence coordinator for Habitat Harmony, an organization that assists humans living in harmony with wildlife.
Publications and Media Interviews
Louchouran, N. X., Renn, E. J., Anderson, G., Parsons, D. R., Putrevu, K., Santiago-Ávila, F. J., & Treves, A. (2025). Mexican wolf management needs transparency in methods and data to support policy decisions. Journal of Applied Ecology, 00, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.70059
Arizona Daily Sun newspaper article on July 24, 2025: “Digging deeper: Gunnison’s prairie dog a keystone species in northern Arizona’s ecosystem” by Calliope J. Ludeker
Arizona Highways magazine article in October 2023: “Treated Like a Dog!” by Matt Jaffe