Caitlin Bloomer, Ph.D.

Dr. Caitlin Bloomer serves as a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she leads the online graduate certificate program in Wetland Science and Conservation. Her research focuses on the ecology and conservation of North American burrowing crayfish, employing ecological niche models, isotopic diet studies, and field experiments to inform conservation management strategies. With over $1 million in funded proposals as Principal Investigator, she has demonstrated exceptional skill in research development and scientific communication. Her work includes significant publications on crayfish life history, habitat suitability modeling, and wetland conservation, with her research being widely cited in the field. Previously serving as a postdoctoral research associate with the Illinois Natural History Survey and a curriculum design fellow at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, she brings extensive expertise in ecological modeling using R and GIS to her current role teaching courses including "Mitigating the Human Impact on Wetlands" on Coursera.