Amy Wagler, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematical sciences, recently was named a member of the Board of Directors for the Frontera Land Alliance.
The nonprofit organization works to protect natural areas, working farms and ranches, water and wildlife. It began in 2005 when community members realized there was an urgent need to preserve some of the important remaining natural and working lands in the greater El Paso and southern New Mexico region.
“I am excited about working with Frontera Land Alliance to promote knowledge and appreciation of our natural environment,” Wagler said. “I am passionate about preservation of natural spaces, particularly in the border region.”
Though her professional expertise is not directly related to ecology and preservation, there is a connection to her research and teaching model.
She is a faculty fellow for UTEP’s Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) where she works to develop a faculty community of practice around community-engaged scholarship, service learning and community-based research.
In the classroom, the statistician has her Applied Regression Analysis students apply their statistics research projects and problem solving work to actual community issues. Wagler says utilizing applications learned inside the classroom helps students experience the impact of using statistics to address real-life situations.
The most recent project her class worked on involved research studies to understand how proximity to green or open space, like Castner Range (www.castner4ever.org), affects property value in El Paso.