2022 Rocky Mountain Community Science Conference

2022 Keynote Speaker Karen Oberhauser

Monitoring Monarchs: A Success for People, Habitat,

and Butterflies

Karen Oberhauser - 2022 Keynote Speaker

Karen Oberhauser is the Director of the UW-Madison Arboretum. She and her students have conducted research on several aspects of monarch butterfly ecology; this research depends on traditional lab and field techniques, as well as the contributions of a variety of audiences through citizen science. In 1996, she started a nationwide Citizen Science project called the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP), which continues to engage hundreds of volunteers throughout North America. The MLMP and another flagship citizen science program with a strong monarch focus, Journey North, are key features of the growing citizen science programming at the UW-Madison Arboretum. Karen has authored over 100 papers on her research on monarchs, insect conservation, and citizen science. She has an undergraduate degree from Harvard University, a degree in science education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a PhD in Ecology and Behavioral Biology from the University of Minnesota.

Karen is passionate about the conservation of the world’s biodiversity, and believes that the connections her projects and the Arboretum promote between humans and the natural world promote meaningful conservation action. She is a co-founder of the Monarch Joint Venture, and a founding officer of the Monarch Butterfly Fund.