Heather Fair

Heather teaches stream ecology field methods and environmental studies. Heather has conducted aquatic invertebrate ecology research in glacial-melt and groundwater streams of mountainous Yunnan and Sichuan Tibetan Autonomous regions with indigenous minorities since 2008. Her research interests include the interactions of the cryosphere and biosphere, understanding physical melt dynamics and biological community succession on debris covered glaciers, hydraulic flow pattern effects on biological community characteristics, the trickle-down effects of anthropogenic activities on headwaters and receiving rivers (water quality, sedimentation), sustainability, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and systems theory. Heather works with the US Geological Survey Water Mission Area Water Resources Research Act program. She has also held international positions in corporate information systems, training management, and global procurement finance and strategy. She has worked in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Dubai, and Brazil and performed overseas field research with National Science Foundation, Fulbright, Fulbright-Hays, and Columbus Zoo Conservation grants. She learned Chinese as an undergraduate and was a master’s foreign language area studies (FLAS) recipient at The Ohio State University and was an intern on the Yangtze River in 1997 as a part of the seminal US/China Links internship