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Biography - Kelly C Reiss

As a child, Kelly Reiss explored the great outdoors through weekend trips in the salt waters of the Intracoastal Waterway of south east Florida and on other occasions to the fresh waters of the Everglades. She further explored the stunning coasts of California and the whitewater rivers of the Carolinas on several family trips.

After high school graduation as the class valedictorian, Reiss went on the earn a B.S. degree in Forest Resources and Conservation from the University of Florida, graduating with honors. During that time she worked as an intern in land management through the Palm Beach County Environmental Resources Management and as a laboratory assistant in the Silviculture laboratory.

Reiss continued her education with an M.S. degree in Systems Ecology through the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida. Her thesis research explored the role of vines in wetland primary succession following landscape creation after phosphate mining through monitoring and modeling. This research inspired Reiss to continue on for a Ph.D. also from the Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida. Her dissertation research focused on the development of three indices of biotic integrity for diatoms, macrophytes, and macroinvertebrates for Florida depressional wetlands, called the Florida Wetland Condition Index.

Reiss’s research has included projects on hydrology and nutrient concentrations in isolated wetlands; nutrient effects on springs; wetland mitigation banking; developing a training manual for the Uniform Mitigation Assessment Method for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection; and developing bioindicators for forested strand and floodplain wetlands.

Dr. Reiss has instructed courses in environmental science, soil science, wetlands ecology, natural resource management, environmental biology (lab), environmental science and humanities (Lab), and introduction to soils in the environment (lab).