Anna Tucker, PhD

Dr. Tucker joined the Iowa Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit as Assistant Unit Leader in 2021. Prior to joining the Iowa Unit, Dr. Tucker received a M.S. degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, a Ph.D. from Auburn University, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the USGS Eastern Ecological Research Center (formerly Patuxent Wildlife Research Center). Her research themes include wildlife population ecology and demographics, population viability analysis, and wildlife-habitat associations, with an emphasis on the use of quantitative methods and hierarchical modeling to analyze demographic data. Most of her research has focused on migratory shorebirds, songbirds, and waterfowl, but she has also worked with other species of conservation concern including pollinators and herptofauna. Her work also involves using structured decision making to assist state and federal managers with decision making in the face of uncertainty. Dr. Tucker teaches a graduate-level class on Decision-support Modeling and has led workshops on Bayesian population analysis methods.