Dr. Carrie Fearer
FACULTY AFFILIATE | Global Change Center
Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation
Google Scholar • Dept. Page
(540) 231-6952 • cfearer@vt.edu
Dr. Fearer is an assistant professor of forest health in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation (FREC) in the College of Natural Resources and Environment (CNRE) at Virginia Tech. Her research program covers a broad range of topics related to forest health, including forest pathology, early disease detection, and the role of microbes in tree health. She is broadly interested in developing rapid, non-destructive methods to identify tree diseases prior to spread and disease resistant trees in order to protect forest biodiversity and assist in ecosystem restoration applications.
Dr. Fearer’s work includes several tree-pest systems that threaten keystone species both nationally and internationally, such as laurel wilt disease, beech bark disease, and walnut witches’-broom. She gained international recognition for her work on identifying the causal agent of the newly emerged disease, beech leaf disease, which threatens global nursery trade and native American, European, and Asian beech species, which are foundational tree species in each of their respective countries.
Dr. Fearer currently co-teaches the class Forest and Tree Pest Management (FREC 4514) with fellow GCC faculty affiliate Dr. Scott Salom (FREC 4514). She is also a member of the GCC’s Invasive Species Working Group and serves as the co-chair of the American Phytopathological Society’s (APS) Forest Pathology Committee
The GCC's affiliated faculty come from dozens of disciplines, spanning more than 20 academic units on campus.
Our diversity is our greatest asset.
