Bio

Alishia Orloff is a PhD student at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability (IRES) advised by Dr. Claire Kremen in the Working to Restore Connectivity and Sustainability Lab. She has a strong passion for biocultural restoration and community-based science. Alishia obtained her B.S. from the University of Washington focusing her work on storytelling as a basis for environmental literacy. Further pursuing her interests in restoration, Alishia attended the Yale School of the Environment where she studied agroecological restoration of Hawaiian wetlands. She is currently working with the sʔulíp Indigenous Peoples Cultural Burning Network in Washington state to study the impacts of cultural burning on vegetative productivity of culturally significant plant species. She utilizes community-based approaches with a scientific lens that engages and acknowledges communities most directly impacted. Her work prioritizes the reaffirmation and integration of traditional and local ways of knowing as a lens for holistic understandings of conservation. 

Featured Publications

Ricci, CA, Alishia E. Orloff, Melodi Wynne, Lynette Pflueger, P Hallos, A Lopez, M Phelps, JM. Postma, LE. Hebert (2025) Land Use Barriers to Native and Western Food Security are Associated with Indigenous Maternal Death Occurrence and Changes to Nutritional Value of a Key Traditional Food. IScience.

Kristiina A. Vogt, Alexa Schreier, Alishia E. Orloff, Michael E. Marchand, Daniel J. Vogt, Phil Fawcett, Samantha De Abreu, Turam Purty, Maia Murphy-Williams (2021) Building environmental literacy through Holistic Storytelling.  Online J Ecol Environ Sci 1(1):2021. OJEES.MS.ID.000501.