Kristi MacDonald, Ph.D., is the Director of Science at Raritan Headwaters Association (RHA), the non-profit organization with the mission of protecting and restoring watershed resources in the 470-mile2 Upper Raritan River Region of New Jersey. At RHA, she directs a team of fellow-scientists and conservation practitioners to monitor, study, and understand the impacts of land use and climate change on stream ecosystems and to work with municipalities and other partners to implement restoration and climate resiliency projects including green infrastructure, dam removals, riparian buffer plantings, and habitat stewardship. RHA’s award-winning stream monitoring program provides valuable data for regulatory use in upholding the Clean Water Act. As a conservation scientist for the past 35 years, Kristi has focused her research on understanding how people can coexist with and foster healthy ecosystems, and the species they support, to inform better land use decisions. Prior to joining RHA in 2015, she held positions at NY/NJ Baykeeper, NJ Fish and Wildlife, and taught AP biology at a rigorous science magnet program for Newark Public Schools and she remains a research associate with Hudsonia. Kristi has studied wildlife as close to home as the New Jersey shore and as far away as islands in the Indian Ocean while serving as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. She is co-author of the recently published book “Urban Biodiversity – the Natural History of the New Jersey Meadowlands.”