Denise Piechnik

Denise is a restoration ecologist working with the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation's Bureau of Ecosystem Health. She works on restoration planning projects on the Upper Hudson River, including tasks related to PCB contamination and natural resource damage assessments.  Previously Denise was a biology professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, where for 10 years her teaching and research emphasized aquatic macroinvertebrates and biomonitoring. Before that she was a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State University, where she researched pasture-based best management practices and arthropod biodiversity.  Denise earned her PhD at University of California, Davis, where she investigated food-web properties during community assembly.  She completed her BS in Biology at San Francisco State University. Denise enjoys bugs, plants, playing the violin and fermenting food.