Andrea Bruns
Systems Ecologist
Key skills: Science communication, landscape modeling, conservation planning, geospatial analysis, remote sensing, nature-based solutions
Andrea merges social and analytical toolkits through the lens of natural resource management to guide sound and collaborative decision-making. Her expertise in watershed-scale conservation planning is complemented by a previous career in strategic and science communication, empowering her to produce audience-specific messages and analyses.
Andrea practices interdisciplinary solutions that embrace complex human motivations and relationships. As a communication professional, she has worked closely with non-profit, academic, First Nation, and other governmental clients, packaging their ideas and data for target audiences. She produces education and outreach materials including outreach campaigns, data visualizations, signage, e-learning modules, and strategic communication workshops. Andrea grounds communication strategy in data solutions, building tools that scale environmental data to support relationship-building between conservation practitioners, policymakers, advocacy groups, community members, and corporations.
Andrea holds a B.Sc. in Communications and Philosophy from Houghton University (Houghton, NY, USA), and a Masters of Environmental Management in Ecosystem Science and Conservation from Duke University (Durham, NC, USA). During her graduate studies, Andrea integrated water resource management, forestry, and landscape modeling disciplines as tools for nature-based climate adaptation. In close collaboration with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in North Carolina, she developed prioritization models for integrating restoration feasibility and flood resilience objectives with traditional biodiversity conservation goals. Her prioritization geodatabase for North Carolina’s 25,000 sq km Cape Fear River Basin guides conservation decision-making, informs TNC’s relationship cultivation strategy, and supports organizational capacity building.
Outside of work, Andrea can be found backpacking, eating peanut butter on mountaintops, paddling, or teaching composting workshops. She is a passionate naturalist, particularly fond of small plants and amphibians, and prefers to cycle or jog to wherever she’s headed.