ESS Faculty

Our faculty are leading environmental scientists who study how both ecosystems and social systems work. ESS courses help students understand the world through science and build the skills to use science to advance sustainability.

Akasha Faist

Assistant Professor, Rangeland and Restoration Ecology

Contact

Office
CHCB 441
Phone
406-243-2596
Email
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.