About Us > Research Ranch Advisory Team >

About Us
Research Ranch Advisory Team

Brooke Gebow has spent her professional life in the natural resources world and has experience in the engineering, management, outreach, and scientific sides of the field. She came on board as Southeastern Arizona Preserves Manager for The Nature Conservancy in February 2005. Her job is to keep programs at the Ramsey Canyon, Patagonia-Sonoita Creek, and Canelo Hills preserves aligned with regional conservation priorities. Preserve staff are dedicated to maintaining ecological processes on these sites, educating the visiting public about conservation, and protecting surrounding landscapes. Brooke is also charged with collaborating on conservation initiatives across the Greater Huachuca Mountains Ecoregional Site, an expanse of mountains and grasslands in Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima counties as well as northern Sonora. Her Southeastern Arizona program and the Conservancy’s San Pedro River programs frequently work together on regional projects. She and her staff of six are based at Ramsey Canyon, in the Huachuca Mountains near Sierra Vista.

Brooke received an MS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona in 1979 and a BA in Analysis and Conservation of Ecosystems in 1974 from UCLA. She came to the Conservancy from the School of Natural Resources at the University of Arizona where she was on the staff of the USGS Sonoran Desert Research Station and was working with federal land managers in the Southwest on planning for fire. She worked at the Tucson Botanical Gardens, spent many years as a free-lance researcher and science writer, and began her career as an environmental analyst and program manager in the small-scale energy business.

Brooke has been an organizer of and editor for the conferences on Research and Resource Management in the Southwestern Deserts, including the 2004 Biodiversity and Management of the Madrean Archipelago II. She served on the board of directors of the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (CEDO) for six years and spent 2002-2005 as president. She enjoys getting into Tucson on the third Tuesday of the month for the meetings of the Tucson Herpetological Society. Her favorite after-hours activities are riding herd on her young-adult kids, swimming, hiking, cooking, and playing the harpsichord. Brooke lives in Palominas, Arizona near the San Pedro River.