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Janel Lynnette Ortiz Associate Professor, Biological Sciences Center for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching

Janel 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:

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)

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