PCI Fellows

Brian Holguin is a Samala Chumash descendant and holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California Santa Barbara, Brian specializes in ethically grounded, community-based indigenous archaeology and his research incorporates diverse methodologies to explore topics like AI’s role in tribal identity and protection of cultural heritage, human-environmental interactions, isoscapes, precontact kinship systems, and decolonization of archaeology. Brian is also interested in how archaeology can be used as a platform for more inclusive and equitable land conservation strategies.

Matt’s research is focused on restoring Jalama Creek and returning Southern California Steelhead to the watershed. This includes assessing physical and biological responses to stream restoration actions, such as barrier removal and cattle exclusion, and designing a framework to re-establish a self-sustaining steelhead population within the Dangermond Preserve.

Matt received his M.S. in Wildlife Ecology and Ph.D. in Ecology and Environmental Science from the University of Maine where his research focused on migration ecology of American eel and Atlantic salmon. He also holds a B.A. in Biology from Carleton College. 

Erica’s research aims to understand climate impacts on coastal species and biodiversity and using this information to guide conservation decisions. Erica is a Point Conception Institute Anthony LaFetra Research Fellow, where she helps coordinate TNC’s coastal research collaborations at the Dangermond Preserve. She also focuses on synthesizing existing coastal biodiversity data to understand ecological dynamics and species range shifts under climate change to inform conservation practice both locally and globally.  

Erica holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Zoology from Stellenbosch University in South Africa and a B.Sc. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Prior to joining TNC, she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at University of California, Davis, where she studied eco-evolutionary dynamics of a climate-driven range shift in owl limpets. In her free time, she enjoys being outside hiking, surfing, skiing, and roller skating, or cooking and crafting at home.  

For more information about Erica, please see staff stories. 

Jinsu’s research and work has focused on building tools for the scalable assessment and conservation of vulnerable ecosystems. Jinsu is the Conservation Technology Associate at the Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve where he assists with the construction of the Preserve’s digital-twin through advanced network infrastructure, instrument installation and data analysis.

He holds an M.Sc. in Environmental Data Science from King’s College in London where he developed scalable mangrove species discrimination models using spectral imagery and synthetic-aperture radar. As an undergraduate, Jinsu received a B.A. in Data Science with an emphasis in Social Welfare, Health and Poverty from the University of California, Berkeley.

For more information about Jinsu's PCI experience, please see staff stories. 

Mahsa is PCI’s Spatial Data Analyst, focused on work linking freshwater resources in support of fire risk modeling, prescribed fire planning and community wildfire protection. She holds a Ph.D. from the Geography Department of Indiana University Bloomington.

For the past several years, her research has focused on using remote sensing datasets to monitor the ecohydrological consequences of climate change on forested landscapes. More recently, her research has expanded to assess the application of Machine Learning in geospatial science. She utilized Machine Learning classification algorithms in combination with optical/thermal imageries and LiDAR datasets to evaluate land-use land-cover changes in forested and agricultural landscapes.

For more information about Mahsa's PCI experience, please see staff stories. 

Publication: Khodaee, M., Easterday, K., & Klausmeyer, K. (2024). Integrating hydrological parameters in wildfire risk assessment: A machine learning approach for mapping wildfire probability. Environmental Research Letters, 19(11), 114043. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad80ad

Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant is a wildlife ecologist with an expertise in uncovering how human activity influences carnivore behavior and ecology. Her current field system encompasses the central coast of California where she is studying the unique ecology of carnivores in coastal zones, as well as the role of protected areas in connectivity of high-quality habitat for large carnivores. Her previous research questions surrounded the ecological drivers of human-carnivore conflict with grizzly bears in the Northern Great Plains, black bears in the Western Great Basin, African lions in rural Kenya and Tanzania, as well as grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.