Rachel Jordan

VCI Notetaker & Researcher

Born and raised in the southern Appalachians, Rachel received her BS in Biology from Appalachian State University in 2018 and her MS in Botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2023. With the support of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, her research explored the impacts of winter climate change on the physiology of high-elevation forests in the southern Appalachians, especially the Fraser fir. Now living at the edge of the Smokies in Sylva, NC, she is deeply committed to preserving Appalachian culture and biodiversity, ultimately seeking a more ecological way of being for people (and plants) everywhere.