Isabel Gottlieb - Midwest region manager

Ms. Gottlieb is a Senior Ecologist/Project Manager with extensive experience in wildlife ecology, research, and management. Isabel has a broad, research-based background studying raptors, passerines, bats, primates, herpetofauna, bees, trophic cascades, and plant communities across the Intermountain West, United States, in Costa Rica, and in Tanzania. She has worked at the intersection of wildlife conservation and renewable energy development since 2013. Her recent work focused on the evaluation of technologies designed to reduce collision risk for raptors and bats at commercial wind energy facilities. She has worked closely with wind energy developers, turbine manufacturers, federal agencies, and other researchers. Isabel led the development of a successful proposal for a $1,000,000 award from the Department of Energy to finalize the development of and evaluate a “smart curtailment” system designed to reduce collision risk for bats at wind energy facilities while minimizing excess power loss. Isabel earned her M.S. in Interdisciplinary Ecology through the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida studying the potential impacts (and the minimization of those impacts) of land management for cellulosic biofuel production on wildlife communities in the Southeastern United States. She earned her B.S. in Biology and Environmental Science from Trinity College studying the ecology of Red-tailed Hawks in urban environments.
 
At Shoener Environmental Inc., Isabel oversees the implementation of ecological studies to facilitate the permitting of wind and solar projects, determines appropriate conservation measures to minimize risk to wildlife, and develops plans to conserve wildlife while producing renewable energy (e.g. Bird and Bat Conservation Strategies, Environmental Management Plans, etc). She also continues her involvement in the advancement of risk-mitigation technologies through participation in research and workshops.