Marion Wittmann, Ph.D.
Executive Director, UC Santa Barbara Natural Reserve System
As Executive Director of the UC Santa Barbara Natural Reserve System, I oversee the operations of UCSB’s 7 Reserves which include Valentine Camp Reserve and the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory - both located in Mammoth Lakes, the Kenneth S. Norris Rancho Marino Reserve in Cambria, the Santa Cruz Island Reserve, Sedgwick Reserve in the Santa Ynez Valley, the Carpinteria Salt Marsh Reserve, and Coal Oil Point Reserve - located on the UC Santa Barbara campus. The 41-site UC Natural Reserve System is a UC systemwide initiative headquartered out of the UC Office of the President and with 9 UC campus participants. The systemwide UC NRS encompasses more than ¾ million acres of protected land in the state of California as a network of natural areas managed specifically for academic use. The mission of the Natural Reserve System is to contribute to the understanding and wise stewardship of the Earth and its natural systems by supporting university-level teaching, research, and public service at protected natural areas throughout California.
I received a BA in Integrative Biology from UC Berkeley (2000) and doctoral degree from the UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management (2008). Following this training, I was a post-doctoral researcher at UC Davis and University of Notre Dame, and an Assistant Research Professor at the University of Nevada Reno. I have authored over 25 peer-reviewed scientific articles on environmental risk, invasive species, and natural resource management. Before coming back to UCSB to join the NRS, I spent a year on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. as a American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Congressional Fellow, serving in the United States Senate.
Contact Information
Phone: (805) 893-6179
Email: marion.wittmann@ucsb.edu