NJHEPS | New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability
Daniela Shebitz
Vice President
Chair and Professor, Department of Environmental and Sustainability Sciences, Kean University
Dr. Daniela Shebitz holds a Ph.D. in Ecosystem Science from the University of Washington, Seattle (2006) and BS and MS from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She is an ethnobotanist, plant ecologist and restoration ecologist. Her research has focused on evaluating the effects of land management on plant diversity in areas ranging in location from the New Jersey Pine Barrens to the tropical lowland rainforests of Costa Rica and temperate forests of Washington State. Daniela also studies the uses of plants as medicine, food, and textiles and works with indigenous cultures to reintroduce traditional land management and anthropogenic fire regimes that historically maintained the presence of these culturally important species. She is currently the Chair of Kean University's Department of Environmental and Sustainability Sciences where she teaches courses in ecology, conservation biology, field biology, medicinal botany, and environmental science.