Kelly Guilbeau

Kelly is a social scientist with an interdisciplinary background in landscape ecology, mental health counseling, communications, and stakeholder engagement. A native of south Louisiana, Kelly has always been keen to understand human behavior and these days, apply that knowledge to conservation decision-making. After obtaining studying psychology and mental health counseling in south Louisiana, she spent several years in rural Iowa working with college students on their personal and professional development. While in the Midwest, she established a volunteer-based non-profit organization focused on restoring pollinator habitat in roadsides. After obtaining more schooling in environmental conservation, she applied her focus on the human dimensions of large landscape conservation to a rebranding and stakeholder engagement project with the Cascades to Coast Landscape Collaborative in the Pacific Northwest (one of the original LCCs). She held a contract position with the USGS Wetland and Aquatic Research Center for two years, studying shared values on the Gulf of Mexico coast to better inform restoration project objectives. As a social scientist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Southeast Region, Kelly brings a social-ecological perspective to transdisciplinary teams working on decision making in the face of climate uncertainty, supporting the wellbeing of our workforce as they navigate ecological transformations, engaging urban communities throughout the region, and shifting the culture of the field of conservation to be more inclusive, welcoming, and just. Kelly is most recently narrowing in on understanding the mental and physical health impacts of climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.

Learn more about climate change within our workforce and the communities we serve and will do so through the pursuit of a Doctor of Public Health (DrPh) with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Kelly’s broad knowledge base allows her to think creatively and systemically about complex issues, consistently infusing social science principles into collaborative work. She lives on a small piece of land on a dead-end street, complete with a duck pond, too many craft supplies, a wonderful partner, and two cats.

Kelly holds a B.S. in Psychology and Sociology from Louisiana State University, a M.Ed. in Counselor Education from the University of New Orleans, a M.S. in Environmental Conservation Leadership from the Nelson Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is currently a pursuing a Doctor of Public Health with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.