Lisa Faust, Ph.D.

About

In 2020, Lisa became the senior director of population ecology, overseeing the Alexander Center for Applied Population Biology, the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Population Management Center, and the Tanzania Conservation Research Program. Lisa’s research focuses on using demographic computer models as tools to improve the management and conservation of wildlife populations. She also creates tools to improve the management of zoo populations, including PopLink, PMCTrack, and ZooRisk, freely available software packages that help sustain healthy zoo populations.

From 2012 to 2020, Lisa served as the vice president of Lincoln Park Zoo’s Conservation & Science Department, overseeing the zoo’s discipline-orientated research centers. In that role, she provided strategic guidance to the zoo’s conservation and research efforts locally and globally, including research in wildlife health and disease, population biology and management, animal behavior and welfare, and urban ecology.

Lisa serves as field conservation advisor for the Eastern Massasauga Species Survival Plan® and as a member of AZA’s Research and Technology and Wildlife Conservation Committees. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Lisa’s dissertation research focused on applied demography for the management and conservation of captive and wild populations. She has worked in conservation and science at Lincoln Park Zoo in various capacities since 1998. When not buried in computer models, Lisa enjoys traveling, cooking, reading fiction, and getting out into the wilderness.