Program Faculty
The Systems Ecology Intercollegiate Graduate Program is comprised of a collective group of faculty from across campus who advise and guide students accepted to the Systems Ecology graduate program. Faculty come from across campus, ranging from the W.A. Franke College of Forestry, the Division of Biological Sciences, The School of Business, School of Journalism, Departments of Environmental Science, Geography, Economics. University faculty apply to become part of the Systems Ecology faculty, and are accepted based on their topical area of research and teaching relevant to systems ecology, and scholarly performance. View the Faculty Guidelines.
Akasha Faist
Assistant Professor, Rangeland and Restoration Ecology
Contact
- Office
- CHCB 441
- Phone
- 406-243-2596
- akasha.faist@umontana.edu
Personal Summary
I joined the faculty at the University of Montana the fall of 2022 as an assistant professor of rangeland and restoration ecology. Prior to working at UM, I was an assistant professor at New Mexico State University from 2017 through 2022 in the Range Sciences Program. I received my PhD in 2015 at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, and was also a postdoctoral scholar in the same program from 2015-2017. Between graduate school and receiving my bachelor’s degree in Biology at Southern Oregon University in 2004, I held natural resource, science, and management positions within and outside of academia. Here at UM, my current research is primarily focused on identifying and overcoming barriers to ecological restoration success. Through understanding what the potential barriers to ecological restoration success are, we then can more effectively direct our efforts to ameliorate those constraints. Within this framework, my research pulls from multiple fields including plant, soil, and rangeland ecology. I have taught undergraduate and graduate courses in rangeland management and ecology, vegetation monitoring and assessment, and restoration ecology.