Expertise:
Environmental Justice, Invasive Species, Animal Behavior, Wildlife Biology, Invasive Species, Wildlife Management, Bird Banding, Urban Wildlife, Camera Trapping, Redlining, Wild Birds, Avian Ecology, Wild Parrots, Habitat Relationships, Ecology Education, Environmental ConservationJanel Ortiz is a wildlife scientist and conservation educator who leads impactful research and has outreach focused on fostering healthy human-wildlife coexistence in urban environments. Her research spans animal behavior, wildlife-habitat relationships, ecology education and urban conservation, with current efforts focused on building a regional research program in urban wildlife ecology and conservation education across Los Angeles County.
At the College of Science, Ortiz established the Ortiz Lab, a dynamic hub for inclusive education, research and community engagement. The Ortiz Lab spearheads several notable initiatives, including Womxn in the Wild, a science outreach program that offers field experience, peer mentorship and career preparation for womxn in the natural resources and agriculture; and the Urban Wildlife Information Network of the San Gabriel Valley, which uses remote camera monitoring and spatial analysis to study wildlife across urban-to-rural gradients.
Ortiz teaches courses on human-wildlife interactions, life science and biology pedagogy, and is dedicated to increasing representation for women in STEM while making science education accessible and engaging for all.
Recent Grants and Fellowships:
- Southern California Edison, “Tracking wildlife in the San Gabriel Valley,” $25,000, 2025
- STEM-NET SEED Grant, California State University (CSU), “Environmental ineQuities in UrbAn Landscapes (EQUAL): Exploring the Health of Humans & Biodiversity in an Introductory Biology Laboratory CURE,” $25,000, 2024
- CREATE Award, California State University (CSU), “EMBRACE: Education in Molecular Biology, Representation, And Cultural Equity,” $88,000, 2023
- RSCA Grant, Cal Poly Pomona, “Using UAV-mounted thermal cameras to monitor introduced avian species in anthropogenic habitats,” $10,000, 2023
- SPICE Grant, Cal Poly Pomona, “Anti-Racist teaching in STEM and increasing diverse representation in our classrooms,” $25,000, 2022
- California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology (CSUPERB): Faculty-Graduate Student Research Collaboration Program, “Not all greenspace is created equal: Evaluating the influence of greenspace metrics and the ‘Luxury Effect’ on wildlife diversity and people in San Gabriel Valley, California,” $10,000, 2022
- SPICE Grant, Cal Poly Pomona, “The Biology Capital Podcast: An original CPP podcast intervention aimed at increasing emotional engagement and sense of belonging in STEM,” $4,800, 2022
- California Science Project, “A community-engaged and environmental justice-based approach to teacher education and professional development.,” $25,000, 2022
- SPICE Grant, Cal Poly Pomona, “Cal Poly WILD: An On-Campus Wildlife Learning Experience,” $12,527, 2021
- Education 2 Employment (E2E) Incubator Microgrant, University of San Diego, “Conservation Collaborative,” $1,400, 2019
- East Foundation, “Bird Species Richness, Occurrence, & Abundance,” $110,787, 2018-2021
- Rachael & Ben Vaughan Foundation Grant, $5,000, 2015-2018
- East Foundation, “Bird Species Richness, Occurrence, & Abundance,” $53,785, 2015-2018
Selected Publications:
- With Elihu, A.J. “Concrete Jungle to Urban Oasis: Evaluating Scale, Vegetation Cover, and Aggregation of Urban Greenspaces on Wildlife.” Wildlife Biology, Under Review
- With Conkey, A.T., Brennan, L.A., Fedynich, L., and M. Green. “Wildlife Undergrads Spread their Wings in Citizen Science Research Experience.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Special Issue: Environmental Education and Awareness 19(24):16983, 2022
- “Redlining and Environmental Justice Lesson Plan.” Ecological Society of America’s EcoEd Digital Library (EcoEdDL), 2022
- With Conkey, A.T., Brennan, L.A., Fedynich, L., and M. Green. “Incorporating Research into the Undergraduate Wildlife Management Curriculum.” Natural Sciences Education 49:e20028, 2020
- With Conkey, A.T., Brennan, L.A., Fedynich, L., and M. Green. “Wild Bird Workshop: A Professional Development Opportunity for Educators.” American Biology Teacher 82(1):3-10, 2020
- With Lipshutz, M., Conkey, A.T., Brennan, L.A., Perotto, H., Wester, D., and T. Campbell. “Temporal Relationships of Breeding Landbirds and Landscape Productivity.” Wild, 2025
- With Slifka, D.E., Conkey, A.T., Brennan, L.A., Perotto, H., Hernández, F., Lipschutz, M.L., Montalvo, A., and T. Langschied. “Ten-Year Population Trends of Land Birds on Three East Foundation Ranches in South Texas.” Bulletin of the Texas Ornithological Society 55(1-2):5-110, 2022
- With Desharnais, R.A., Muchlinski, A.E., Alvidrez, R.I., and Gatza, B.P. “Timescale Analyses of Population Fluctuations in Coexisting Populations of a Native and Invasive Tree Squirrel.” Ecology and Evolution 12:e8779, 2022
- “Temporal and Spatial Overlap in the Behaviors of a Native and Invasive Tree Squirrel in Southern California.” Ethology Ecology and Evolution 34(2):148-164, 2021
- With A. Arredondo. “Cactus Wren Nest Characteristics in South Texas.” Bulletin of the Texas Ornithological Society 50(1-2):75 ̶ 79, 2017
- With A.A. Torres Conkey. “Conservation in the Classroom: Bringing the Outside In.” Caesar Kleberg Tracks, Volume 1, Issue 1, Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Kingsville, TX. 2016
- “A ‘city girl’ in the natural world: Janel Ortiz focuses on urban wildlife—connecting city kids to nature.” The Wildlife Professional, Volume 15, No. 3, p. 16, 2021
- “Classroom Wildlife Research Expands Undergraduate Student Skills.” CSA (Crop Science, Soil Science, Agronomy) News, Volume 65, Issue 11, p. 20, 2020
Interviews:
- “Fruit trees and ‘generational learning’ turn El Cajon into a parrot paradise as temperatures drop,” San Diego Union-Tribune, Dec. 2, 2024
- “CREATE: Creating Responsive, Equitable, Active Teaching and Engagement Awards Program,” — CSU News, June 26, 2023
- “They named Mt. Helix after a snail. There are so many La Mesas,” San Diego Reader, Oct. 9, 2019
- “Parrot species are nonnative transplants in San Diego,” San Diego Union Tribune, May 16, 2019
- “How the wild parrots of San Diego arrived in America’s Finest City,” ABC 10 San Diego, March 27, 2019
- “Wild Parrots a Catalyst for Citizen Science,” Ramona Home Journal, March 21, 2019
- “Can We Conserve Endangered Parrots By Keeping Them In Cities?” Forbes, Feb. 28, 2019
- “Tracking the wild parrots of San Diego County,” The Escondido Grapevine, Feb. 18, 2019
- “Tracking San Diego’s Parrots: USD Biology Instructor Launches Study to Track the Wild Birds,” NBC 7 San Diego, Feb. 18, 2019
Education:
B.S., Animal Science, University of California, Davis
M.S., Biology, California State University, Los Angeles
Ph.D., Wildlife science, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Languages:
English, Spanish (audio and email interviews only)