Linda Howard

Linda Howard is a doctoral student in the Biology and Society program at Arizona State University where she is co-advised by Dr. Beth Polidoro and Dr. Kathleen Pigg. She has experience in Sonoran Desert flora, and over the past two years, Linda has worked to compile and vet the first taxonomically complete list of approximately 4,000 plant species estimated to be present in the Sonoran Desert. She has worked both formally and informally with Red List assessments over the past few years, and serves as the IUCN Red List Authority for the Sonoran Desert Plant Specialist Group. Her research interests are plant conservation, conservation and environmental policy, and assessing the application of conservation research in public policymaking. As part of her dissertation work, Linda is looking at the efficacy of the Endangered Species Act for plant conservation and will also be coordinating and completing Red List assessments for a number of plant groups in the Sonoran Desert to help build a picture of species richness, abundance, and endemism in the Sonoran Desert.