Director, NEON, Inc. Board of Directors: Dr. Hilary Swain

Hilary Swain is the Executive Director of Archbold Biological Station, a not-for-profit research facility with extensive ecological research and environmental monitoring in south central Florida on its 8,840-acre scrub preserve on the Lake Wales Ridge and at its 10,300-acre working cattle ranch, the MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center. Her research interests focus on the application of conservation biology to reserve design and management. She served as a member of the Acquisition and Restoration Council, which oversees Florida's land acquisition program and management of state lands. As Past President of the Organization of Biological Field Stations (1999-2001), Hilary has a good understanding field stations and their role in networks of biological observatory systems, and she has been instrumental in OBFS data management initiatives. She has a broad knowledge of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network and served on NSF's 20-year LTER review panel. She has been involved in planning for NEON: organizing the first NEON planning workshop at Archbold in January 2000 and subsequently participated in the NEON Design Consortium as Co-Chair of the Research Infrastructure Subcommittee of the Facilities and Infrastructure Committee.