Kennedy leads science initiatives for The Nature Conservancy’s Global Conservation Lands. In this role, she works to reconcile human land use with nature conservation. She works with public agencies, corporations, civil society groups and research institutions to integrate science and tools on conservation planning, landscape ecology, agroecology and impact mitigation to promote sustainable landscape design.

Kennedy’s research examines the effects of land use, landscape pattern, and habitat fragmentation on species, ecosystems, and the services they provide. Her projects span local to global scales and integrate field studies, landscape modeling, and data synthesis with the aim of improving land use practice and policy. Her work has been published in leading scientific journals.

Kennedy earned a doctorate from the University of Maryland, master’s degree at Duke University, and a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University. She currently holds adjunct faculty appointments at Colorado State University and Washington State University.