Jacqualine Grant
Professor, Geosciences/ Museum Curator | Southern Utah University
Cedar City, UT, UNITED STATES
Conservation biologist whose work focuses on green infrastructure and organismal biology.
Biography
Dr. Jackie Grant is professor in the Geoscience department and director of the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History at Southern Utah University’s Walter Maxwell Gibson College of Science and Engineering. A conservation biologist, her work focuses on green infrastructure and organismal biology related to insects, mammals, and amphibians.
In 2017, Dr. Grant received a first-of-its-kind release time award from iUTAH (innovative Urban Transitions and Aridregion Hydro-sustainability) for funding water conservation research as it relates to native plants, pollinator habitat improvement, and wildfire restoration. As director of the Frehner Museum, she engages in collections management and collaborating with the Southern Utah Museum of Art to bring STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) educational programming to thousands of K-12 students throughout southern Utah.
Additionally, Dr. Grant serves as vice president for education and outreach for the Society for Conservation Biology and teaches for the SUU Semester in the Parks program. Her academic degrees include a Ph.D. in neurobiology and behavior and an M.S. in animal science from Cornell University. From Texas A&M University, she earned a B.S. degree in biochemistry.
Spotlight
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Industry Expertise (4)
Biotechnology
Education/Learning
Forestry/Forest Products
Renewables and Environmental
Areas of Expertise (14)
Genetics
Wildlife Conservation
Wildfire Restoration
Wildfire
Water Conservation
Southern Utah Plants
Renewables and Environment
Pollinators
Native Plants
Mammalogy
Green Infrastructure
Educational Outreach
Ecological Restoration
Conservation Biology
Education (2)
Cornell University: Ph. D., Neurobiology and Behaviour
Cornell University: M. Sc., Animal Science
Accomplishments (6)
Trustees Award of Excellence (professional)
Southern Utah Unversity, 2018
Volunteer Recognition Certificate (professional)
Office of the Lieutenant Governor in partnership with the Utah Commission on Service and Volunteerism, 2018
Professor of the Year (professional)
Southern Utah University, 2018
Achievement in Experiential Learning (professional)
Incorporating project-based, hands-on learning into the classroom
SUU Service Learning Award (professional)
Commitment to Service at SUU
Outstanding Faculty Member (professional)
School of Forest Resources at Penn State University
Affiliations (3)
- Society for Conservation Biology
- Southwest Wildlife Foundation
- Cedar City Trails Commission
Links (4)
Media Appearances (14)
Southern Utah Museum of Art open to the public
ABC 4 News Utah online
2019-01-23
Jackie Grant, director of Natural History Museum, mentions how each kid will learn how to recognize animals from their bones, fecal matter, and tracks. With interactions with seeds, wildfires, and fossils kids will have an unlimited fun time learning about all tons of significant facts, and Utah's ecology.
What is green infrastructure and how can it be used at home?
Cedar City News online
2018-07-08
Jacqualine Grant is an associate professor of biology at SUU and the director of the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History. As a conservation biologist, her work focuses on green infrastructure and organismal biology related to insects, mammals and amphibians.
The 2017 Brian Head Fire Site Serves As Community Classroom
Utah Public Radio radio
2018-05-08
Residents living in the southern Utah community of Cedar City watched as flames fueled a fire and filled the air with smoke beginning in June 2017. The Brian Head fire damaged more than 72,000 acres of Dixie National Forest and Bureau of Land Management land.
Help Restore Public Lands Destroyed by Brian Head Fire While Learning
St. George News online
2018-05-06
Experience the public lands surrounding Cedar City like never before with Southern Utah University and Jacqualine Grant. Make your summer meaningful by helping restore lands damaged in the 2017 Brian Head fire.
ICCB 2017 Student Award Winners
Society for Conservation Biology online
2017-08-01
“Our student winners represented the diversity and strength of SCB,” said Grant, an assistant professor of biology at Southern Utah University and the director of the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History. “Every region of the Society was represented in the student competition by students who are from or work in those regions. The new structure of this year’s competition fostered participation from students through a variety of venues, and moves SCB into new spaces for communicating science at our meetings.”
Brian Head Fire: From containment to restoration
Spectrum print
2017-07-16
Dr. Jackie Grant, a biology professor at Southern Utah University, is tasked with collecting seeds and native plants for research and restoration following a devastating event, such as a wildfire. Before the damage even occurs, Grant and her team find native seeds for farmers, who will then grow the plant to identify the most efficient and economical options for harvesting. This way, enough seeds are ready to go for re-planting after the damage occurs.
SUU museums partner for unique education experiences
Spectrum print
2015-11-06
“Scientists are far more creative than most people assume,” said Jackie Grant, museum curator and professor at SUU. “When we pair science with art it is more engaging to general audiences such as elementary school children.”
Science Pups Learn from Biology Students
USA Today online
2015-09-28
Students from East Elementary teamed up with biology students from Southern Utah University and hit the Coal Creek trail armed with cookie sheets and peanut butter to learn what types of mammals live along the stream. Jaqualine Grant teaches a mammalogy course at the university and paired her students with East Elementary’s Science and Engineering Club, also known as Science Pups, for the experiential learning opportunity.
‘Evening for Educators’ creates Museum-in-a-Box
St George News online
2016-10-02
The Department of Art & Design at Southern Utah University will host an “Evening for Educators” at the Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA) Tuesday, Oct. 4, from 6-9 p.m.
Episode 35: Sowing Seeds for the Future
Solutions for Higher Education online
Dr. Jackie Grant from SUU's Biology department joins the podcast this week as we discuss how forest fires impact the environment and changes the landscape, as well as how seed collection can help in restoring forests.
US Fish and Wildlife Service concludes that animals killed nearly half of rare Tiehm’s buckwheat population
Sierra Nevada Ally online
2020-12-05
Tiehm’s buckwheat is known to exist on 21 acres in the Silver Peak range of Nevada, a distinctly remote area half way between Tonopah, Nevada and Bishop, California. Biologists have identified 6 populations of the rare plant in the region.
Rodents, not mining, caused damage to Nevada wildflowers, says government agency
Reuters online
2020-12-04
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), a non-profit group, last month said conservationists discovered that “someone had dug up and destroyed” more than 17,000 Tiehm’s buckwheat plants, a rare Nevada wildflower the Fish and Wildlife Service said this summer may warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Officials: Rodents likely destroyed rare plants at mine
The Washington Post online
2020-12-04
DNA evidence suggests rodents destroyed part of an area of an extremely rare desert wildflower being considered for endangered species protection at a contentious mine site in Nevada, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday.
Only 10% of Latter-day Saints see climate change as a crisis, survey finds
KUER online
2023-10-09
But that may be shifting for younger generations. Jackie Grant, a professor of geosciences at Southern Utah University, has seen it play out in her classrooms. The number of students in her conservation biology class has doubled since she began teaching it 11 years ago, she said, and her environmental science class this semester is packed to the gills.
Research Grants (4)
Colorado Plateau Native Plant Program (CPNPP)
Bureau of Land Management $67,949
2017-06-01
Funding provided to collect seeds from native plants for research and restoration. These seeds are used to restore plant life after wildfires destroy forests and seeds in the underlying soil.
iUTAH EPSCoR Research Catalyst Grant
iUtah $5,000
2016-11-01
Faculty release program
NSF iUTAH EPSCoR Research Catalyst Grant
iUtah $15,807
2015-08-01
Enhancing biodiversity, water conservation, and urban agriculture through green roof infrastructure.
NSF iUTAH EPSCoR EOD Catalyst Grant
iUtah $8,223
2014-04-01
Green roof agriculture exhibit and outreach at the Frehner Museum
Articles (5)
Innovative Arts Programs Require Innovative Partnerships: A Case Study of STEAM Partnering between an Art Gallery and a Natural History Museum
The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and IdeasJacqualine Grant & Delaney Patterson
The arts animate learning because they are inherently experiential and because of their potential to develop creative and critical thinking skills in students. These same skills are valued in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, but the arts have not been consistently included in STEM lessons. We transformed our STEM programming into STEAM programming (STEM plus arts) by creating an innovative partnership between two informal learning environments, the Braithwaite Fine Arts Gallery and the Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural History at Southern Utah University...
A reliable, non-invasive technique for measuring growth in tadpoles exposed to salt
Environmental Toxicology and PharmacologyMS Weeg, JB Grant
The use of chemical de-icers raises salt levels in roadside streams and ponds, which has adverse effects on tadpole development. Experiments on the effects of de-icers on tadpole development are often hampered by difficulties measuring body size without introducing handling stress that may skew results or cause unintended mortality. We have found a linear relationship between surface area and body mass in tadpoles that is unaffected by exposure to salt. Measuring surface area is therefore a suitable technique ...
iSAW: Integrating Structure, Actors, and Water to Study Socio-Hydro-Ecological Systems
Earth's FutureJacqualine Grant
Urbanization, climate, and ecosystem change represent major challenges for managing water resources. Although water systems are complex, a need exists for a generalized representation of these systems to identify important components and linkages to guide scientific inquiry and aid water management. We developed an integrated Structure-Actor-Water framework (iSAW) to facilitate the understanding of and transitions to sustainable water systems. Our goal was to produce an interdisciplinary framework for ...
Integrating Water, Actors, and Structure to Study Socio-Hydro-Ecological Systems
AGU Fall Meeting AbstractsRL Hale, A Armstrong, MA Baker, S Bedingfield, D Betts, CA Buahin, M Buchert, T Crowl, R Dupont, J Endter-Wada, C Flint, J Grant, S Hinners, D Horns, JS Horsburgh, D Jackson-Smith, AS Jones, C Licon, SE Null, A Odame, DE Pataki, DE Rosenberg, M Runburg, P Stoker, C Strong
Urbanization, climate uncertainty, and ecosystem change represent major challenges for managing water resources. Water systems and the forces acting upon them are complex, and there is a need to understand and generically represent the most important system components and linkages. We developed a framework to facilitate understanding of water systems including potential vulnerabilities and opportunities for sustainability. Our goal was to produce an interdisciplinary framework for water resources ...
Effects of six chemical deicers on larval wood frogs (Rana sylvatica)
Environmental Toxicology and ChemistryMeagan L Harless, Casey J Huckins, Jacqualine B Grant, Thomas G Pypker
Widespread and intensive application of road deicers, primarily road salt (NaCl), in North America threatens water quality and the health of freshwater ecosystems. Intensive use of NaCl can be harmful to sensitive members of freshwater ecosystems such as amphibians. Detection of negative effects of NaCl application has prompted the search for alternative chemical deicers with lower environmental impacts. We conducted a series of 96-h acute toxicity tests to determine the negative sensitivity of larval wood frogs...
Courses (8)
BIOL 1610 General Biology I, BIOL 1615 General Biology I Lab
Provides a basic foundation in the areas of biochemistry, organization and function of cells, as well as the transmission of genetic information.
BIOL 1620 General Biology II, BIOL 1625 General Biology II Lab
This course introduces Science Majors to the study of biology and the diversity of life. It provides fundamental knowledge of morphological complexity, physiology, development, environmental adaptation, and the evolutionary history of life on Earth.
BIOL 2425 Human Physiology Lab
Systematic study of the functions of the human body from the cellular to the systems.
BIOL 2500 Environmental Biology
Course investigates diverse ecosystems found in southern Utah. Ecosystems will be used to learn about cycling of matter/energy, patterns, scale, proportion, the link between structure/function, cause/effect, and evidence of stability and change.
BIOL 3060 Genetics, BIOL 3065 Genetics Lab
Transmission and expression of genetic information, organisms, and populations. Topics include basic transmission and molecular genetics, regulation of gene expression, developmental genetics, genetics of cancer, the immune response and behavior, and population genetics and evolution.
BIOL 3390 Mammalogy, BIOL 3395 Mammalogy Lab
Structure, classification, life histories and distribution of mammals; introduction to methods of field investigation.
BIOL 3450 Comparative Vertebrate Studies, BIOL 3455 Comparative Vertebrate Studies Lab
Evolutionary comparison of the development, structure, and behavior of vertebrates.
BIOL 4650 Capstone: Conservation Biology
Principles and concepts of conservation biology with emphasis on management of biodiversity (including genetic diversity), ecosystems, and populations and on socio-economic and political factors related to conservation.
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