Our Values

Nichole’s career began as an intern in Boyd Hill Nature Preserve in St. Petersburg, FL, where she joined fire crews in perscribed burns and surveyed endangered species. She worked in environmental education and landscaping before joining the graduate program at the University of Illinois-Chicago, where she worked on soil health and restoration management alongside US Forest Service rangers and Department of Energy earth scientists. After attaining her Ph.D. in 2022, she accepted a position in the Global Drylands Center at Arizona State University, partnering with the USDA Agricultural Research Service to research drought resilience and grazing management at the Jornada Basin Long-term Ecological Research site. After moving to Portland, OR, Nichole founded Reed Nature and Climate Solutions to bring federal conservation planning approaches to all land managers looking to increase climate resilience of their land. 

 Dr. Osvaldo Sala is the founding director of the Global Drylands Center and is among the most cited authors in the fields of ecology, sustainability, and biodiversity. His international leadership includes terms as President of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), as a contributor to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, his involvement with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, and his term as president of the Ecological Society of America. As a world-renowned grassland ecologist, Osvaldo brings decades of experience in foundational and applied research to our projects.