Krista Kirkham is an Aquatic Ecologist for The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Illinois. Krista has been with TNC for 17 years and serves as the lead water quality technician for the Mackinaw River Program. She works closely with agricultural and university partners to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of constructed wetlands, cover crops, and other agricultural conservation practices in reducing nutrient export from tile-drained subwatersheds of the Mackinaw River.
Krista received her B.S. in Environmental Biology from Eastern Illinois University in 2001, followed by a year of service with AmeriCorps in Reno, Nevada. She received her M.S. in Conservation Biology from Illinois State University in 2005. Krista is a visiting researcher at Illinois State University and lives in Bloomington, Illinois. She is a volunteer, member, and former board member with ParkLands Foundation in central Illinois and has been a member of the Soil and Water Conservation Society for 13 years. Krista currently serves as the President of the Land of Lincoln (Illinois) Chapter and has attended and presented at several SWCS conferences.