Dr. J. Leighton Reid

FACULTY AFFILIATE    |   Global Change Center

School of Plant and Environmental Sciences

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(540) 231-9775 •  jlreid@vt.edu

As a restoration ecologist, Dr. Reid is focused on improving outcomes for society and nature in ecosystems that are recovering from disturbance. While ecological restoration is not a substitute for halting greenhouse gas emissions or preserving intact habitat, it is a complementary strategy that can help address the interrelated global challenges of climate change, mass extinction, and the erosion of natural capital. Dr. Reid and his lab group are most interested in questions about how and where ecological restoration can best address these challenges at regional, national, and global scales.

Dr. Reid heads the GCC's Restoration Ecology Working Group. The Restoration Ecology Working Group is an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students reading, thinking, teaching, and researching about the most effective and equitable strategies for restoring biodiversity and environmental quality locally, regionally, and globally.

Before joining the faculty at Virginia Tech in 2019, Dr. Reid worked for five years as a postdoc and assistant scientist in the Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri. He was also a postdoc at Oregon State University. Dr. Reid completed his PhD in the Environmental Studies Department at the University of California Santa Cruz and his BS at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.