Sarah Olimb

Sarah has over a decade of experience in Geographic Information Science (GIS) and spatial analysis. She completed her Master’s thesis at the University of North Dakota, comparing beetle species diversity in native prairie remnants based on variety and pattern of surrounding land use. After graduate school, Sarah joined the GIS lab at American Wildlands, focusing on conservation and connectivity of the U.S. Northern Rockies. She joined WWF in 2009 and has published on a variety of spatial analyses related to grasslands including identifying low impact areas for wind development, swift fox habitat suitability, and identification of native grasslands through satellite interpretation.

Sarah works with WWF’s Northern Great Plains Science, Species, and Sustainable Ranching teams, providing spatial and statistical analysis and cartography. She leads the spatial component of the Plowprint analysis, a multi-year assessment that tracks conversion of native grassland to agriculture across the Great Plains ecoregion. She also supervises an internship program that affords graduate and undergraduate university students focusing on GIS and environmental science the opportunity for hands-on experience in an NGO setting.