Elena Bennett
Professor; Canada Research Chair (Tier I)
I鈥檓 a Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Natural Resource Sciences and the Bieler School of Environment. Research in my lab centers around questions about ecosystem services, the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. Humanity has always depended on these services, including products such as food, freshwater, and fiber, non-material benefits such as places for recreation and inspiration, and benefits obtained by regulation of ecosystem processes, such as flood control and climate regulation. A growing body of evidence indicates that ecosystem management that attempts to maximize one ecosystem service at a time makes ecosystems vulnerable to substantial declines in other services or to increased likelihood of nonlinear, surprising changes. My lab group is interested in how ecosystem services interact across the landscape over long time periods and how we can manage landscapes to provide multiple ecosystem services.
I am passionate about training graduate students for better leadership and communication, and for training in transdisciplinary knowledge-to-action science with local communities.
I have benefitted immensely from many mentors in my career. Those mentors have been instrumental in helping me understand the expectations of me and how to meet them. They have been role models and coaches, as well as cheerleaders and critics, and I鈥檓 in awe of their ability to know just what I needed in so many different situations. I would like to pay that forward, especially by helping new professors grow in self-confidence and understanding of the job by providing opportunities for reflection and growth.