Nicole Michel

Dr. Nicole Michel joined National Audubon Society’s Science Division in December 2015. As the Senior Director of Metrics and Monitoring, Nicole leads a diverse and talented team of scientists who develop metrics for assessing conservation impact such as the Bird-Friendliness Index, a bird and biodiversity impact assessment metric designed for the Conservation Ranching program and since applied to varied habitats across the hemisphere. The Metrics and Monitoring team also develops monitoring frameworks and protocols using both AI-driven bioacoustics, conventional survey methods, and their integration. The team also implements the quantitative analyses needed to understand trends and spatial patterns in bird abundance, occupancy, and occurrence; delineate climate and habitat relationships; and evaluate population- and community-level responses to conservation and management actions.

Nicole has over 30 years’ experience researching bird populations using an array of field and analytical methods. After receiving her undergraduate degree, she spent four years contributing to large-scale avian demographic and population surveys of breeding and migratory songbirds, diurnal raptors, and owls across North America and the Caribbean. In 1999, she joined The Institute for Bird Populations as a Biologist and MAPSPROG Programmer, where for six years she was responsible for analyzing demographic data, modeling bird-habitat relationships, coding and providing technical support for the MAPSPROG banding data entry and verification program, writing reports, and training and supervising field crews.

In 2012, Nicole received her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Tulane University in New Orleans. Her Ph.D. investigated a novel, community-scale mechanism of understory insectivorous bird population decline, as well as the consequences of functional insectivory loss on arthropod and plant communities in Central American lowland tropical rainforests. Nicole completed two postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Saskatchewan. She ascertained spatiotemporal patterns and climatic drivers of population declines in aerial insectivorous birds, examined the population-level effects of neonicotinoid insecticides on insectivorous birds, and assessed habitat relationships and population expansion of wild boar and moose across the Canadian Prairies.

Nicole has published over 100 scientific papers and book chapters. She is an Elective Member of the American Ornithological Society, and collaborates widely with partners in non-profit organizations, academia, and government from her office in Portland, Oregon.