Meagan Leigh Harless, Ph.D.
 Title: Assistant College Lecturer
 Dept: Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences
 Office: SI 233
 Phone: 216-523-7510,  x7510
 Email: m.harless@csuohio.edu
 Address: 2121 Euclid Ave. SI 233, Cleveland, OH 44115

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Education:
B.A., Biology, Hiram College
M.S., Spatial Ecology, Loma Linda University
Ph.D., Ecotoxicology, Michigan Technological University
 
Brief Bio:
Dr. Harless is a native of western Cleveland and earned her B.A. from Hiram College where she participated in a number of research projects at the J.H. Barrow Field Station. It was there in the beech-maple forests that her love of field biology was fostered. She spent the next few years after Hiram working with a number of state, federal, and private conservation organizations on a range of research projects across the country from searching for black-throated blue warbler nests in Great Smoky Mountain National Park to radiotracking bobwhite quail in Tennessee to monitoring habitat use by waterfowl along the Mississippi in Missouri to monitoring trumpeter swan and loon populations at Seney National Wildlife Refuge.

She spent the next few years in the Mojave desert monitoring the space use and social interactions in a population of endangered Mojave desert tortoises in California. Dr. Harless earned her M.S. from Loma Linda University shortly thereafter in examining the land use by tortoises in this population. Her research demonstrated that desert tortoises in this population were much more active and thus required more space than previous research suggested. This led to an increase in the size of the conservation areas set aside for members of this population in the Mojave Desert. She thoroughly enjoyed her time exploring the desert and all of its unique flora and fauna.

Dr. Harless then earned her Ph.D. from Michigan Technological University in the gorgeous upper peninsula of Michigan. Her research focused on the effects of road salt and other chemical deicers on local amphibian communities. Her work demonstrated that supposed 'environmentally friendly' chemical deicers such as acetate products were harmful to freshwater bioindicator species such as  amphibians. Local frog and salamander populations also varied in their response to exposure to these products with some tolerating exposure better than others.

She has experience teaching a range of courses to students of all ages. Dr. Harless has taught eighth grade science, non-majors, majors, and graduate courses in biology over the last twelve years at a number of institutions. Her favorite courses to teach are non-majors courses and field based lab courses.  

Dr. Harless is passionate about teaching and looks forward to getting students excited about science! Her approach is to engage students in biology in a meaningful way to arm them with knowledge to improve their lives. After all, in the wise words of Carl Sagan, "We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology". Dr. Harless engages students in her courses to value science and its contribution to our future.
 
Teaching Areas:
human biology, genetics, ecology, wildlife biology and conservation, herpetology, ornithology, sexual health and wellness, field biology