Kathy Granillo earned a BS in Forestry from the University of California Berkeley, and a MS in Wildlife Resources from the University of Idaho. She recently retired after almost 40 years of Federal service. For the last 11+ years she worked for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as the Refuge Manager at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, located in central New Mexico. Main refuge projects include invasive species control, riparian restoration, reintroducing Gunnison’s prairie dogs to the shortgrass prairie, and several bird research projects (wintering birds, gray and Bell’s vireos breeding biology, Breeding Bird Survey). Prior to becoming a refuge manager, she was immersed in climate change – first as a member of the team that developed the FWS Strategic Plan and Action Plan for Climate Change, and then as the Acting Regional Climate Change Coordinator for the Southwest Region. She was the Regional Refuge Biologist in the Southwest Region from 1993 to 2008, providing support to the 46 refuges in the region (Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas) and serving on the national refuge biological leadership team. Prior to coming to work for the FWS, she worked for the Forest Service as a Forest Wildlife Staff Officer on the Klamath National Forest, as a District Biologist on the Coronado National Forest, and spent 5 years as a biologist for the Research branch of the Forest Service in California.
Kathy has been a member of TWS since the early 1990s, the New Mexico Chapter since 1993, and the Southwest Section since 1998. She is currently the Southwest Section Representative to Council. She chairs the Women of Wildlife Community Team, within the IDEA Working Group of TWS.
She was a member of the local committee for the first-ever TWS Annual Conference in 1994 held in Albuquerque, NM. She chaired the Exhibits and Trade Show Committee. She has organized several symposia and panel discussions at annual conferences.
She has served on the NM Chapter Board as both Secretary/Treasurer and as a Board Member at Large. She has assisted several times with putting on the joint annual conference of the AZ and NM Chapters of TWS and the AZ/NM Chapter of the AFS (JAM) when organized by the NM Chapter TWS.
She is married and has two cats and a gopher snake. She loves to bird and dance, but usually not at the same time.
