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Elise Gornish, PhD

Extension Specialist and Professor, School of Natural Resources and the Environment
College of Agriculture, Life, & Environmental Sciences
Elise Gornish

2026 Distinguished Outreach Faculty

2024 Distinguished Scholar

Dr. Elise Gornish is a Cooperative Extension Specialist in Ecological Restoration at the University of Arizona, as well as Director of the University of Arizona's Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill. Her work largely focuses on identifying strategies for successful restoration in arid land systems and integration of restoration approaches into weed management. Originally from New York, Dr. Gornish received her M.S. and Ph.D. from Florida State University in 2013. She then completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of California, Davis before becoming a Cooperative Extension Specialist in Ecological Restoration there, then moving to UA. In this career, Dr. Gornish has given hundreds of presentations, led a similar amount of workshops and other outreach activities, oversees a variety of web-based outreach platforms, and serves on the boards of over a dozen organizations to foster connections between science and practice. In addition to vegetation management, Dr. Gornish is passionate about STEM inclusion and is the Director of UA GALS (Girls on outdoor Adventure for Leadership and Science). This program focuses on providing science learning and leadership opportunities to traditionally under-served female high school students through backcountry adventures focused on environmental education. Her leadership of the Desert Lab also focuses on bringing science and ecological restoration to life for everyone who lives in the Sonoran Desert.