Judy is a stream ecologist, with particular interests in aquatic insects and riparian foodwebs. Her undergraduate work was at U. C. Berkeley, where she met her husband with whom she enjoyed many years of collaborative study in streams of the West.  After graduate work at U. C. Davis and Oregon State University, Judy was on the faculty in OSU’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, where she taught courses in cultural ecology and riparian ecology, and pursued studies with her graduate students in streams of eastern and western Oregon.  After retiring in 2006, she continued research on the effects of forestry in headwater streams while turning her attention towards writing about science for lay audiences.  She has edited “To Harvest, To Hunt” and “Wading for Bugs” for adult audiences and written four books in the award winning “Ellie and Ricky” series, illustrated by M. L. Herring, from OSU Press. In workshops and web activities she continues working with educators to help kids discover the excitement of science in the natural world. In 2019 the Oregon Chapter of the American Fisheries Society honored her with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

As a teacher and mentor, Judy has been keenly interested in encouraging participation by under-represented groups, serving as adviser to student groups, involving minority students as lab and field assistants, and developing a vital recruiting program for young students in the Society for Freshwater Science, who awarded her its Distinguished Service Award in 2008, and named her a Fellow in 2021.  Judy has been on the board of Freshwaters Illustrated beginning in 2019 and became board chair in 2020.

She continues a lifelong passion for wild things in the out-of-doors, especially the little ones, and as often as she can with her family, enjoys expanding her understanding of plants and animals in the world around us.