As the Senior Director of Climate and Community Science at the National Audubon Society, Dr. Brooke Bateman leads Audubon's climate science and community science areas of focus.
Leading Audubon's climate science, she collaborates with scientists, volunteers, and Audubon’s Climate Initiative team to develop research focused on climate and the conservation of birds and the places they need today and in the future. In this role she led a team of scientists in developing Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink, Audubon's 2019 Birds and Climate Change Report. She also led a team of scientists in developing Audubon's Natural Climate Solutions Report- Maintaining and restoring natural habitats to mitigate climate change, a report which provides a scientific framework to address both the biodiversity and climate crises through harnessing the natural power of our ecosystems to store carbon and provide co-benefits for birds. More recently, she was lead author for Audubon’s Report, Birds and Transmission: Building the Grid Birds Need, which lays out why we need to rapidly upgrade the U.S. transmission grid while emphasizing the need for responsible siting and operation for birds.
Brooke leads Audubon's national community science programs, including the longest running community science program on birds globally, the Christmas Bird Count (CBC), a program that provides vital conservation data on birds while also serving as a fun family tradition. Brooke has also served as science lead for Climate Watch since 2016, where she works with community volunteers to understand how climate change currently affects birds in North America. She also coordinates Audubon's engagement on The Great Backyard Bird Count, a global program for all who love birds in collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Birds Canada.
Before joining the Audubon science team in 2016, Brooke conducted postdoctoral research on the influence of climate and weather on birds and marsupials with James Cook University, The University of Tasmania, and CSIRO in Australia. She also served as postdoctoral associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and, later as an assistant scientist, on a NASA project researching how extreme weather events affect birds. Brooke received her PhD in Zoology and Tropical Ecology at James Cook University in Australia in 2010, a Graduate Diploma of Research Methods from James Cook University in 2006, and a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, from Boston College in 2003. Brooke enjoys hiking, drawing, rowing, ultimate frisbee, pottery, yoga, and birding with her family. Her favorite bird is the Common Loon.
