Wollstein Honored by Society for Range Management with Outstanding Young Professional Award

MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA – Dr. Katie Wollstein received the Outstanding Young Professional Award at the Society for Range Management’s 79th Annual Meeting in Monterey, California last month. The Award is presented by the Society to an individual member or couple who have demonstrated extraordinary potential and promise as range management professionals.  This award is presented as an encouragement for outstanding performance by young men and women entering the profession of range management.

Dr. Wollstein is an innovative rangeland fire specialist whose extension, research, and leadership are strengthening wildfire resilience across millions of acres in the western United States. As Rangeland Fire Specialist with Oregon State University Extension, she serves a 13-million-acre region in southeastern Oregon, delivering applied education and decision-support tools that help landowners and agencies manage fuels, reduce wildfire risk, and protect sagebrush ecosystems.  

Dr. Wollstein’s work bridges ecological science with institutional and social systems, enabling communities to move from reactive suppression toward proactive, landscape-scale planning. She led the development of the Threat-Based Strategic Conservation (TBSC) framework, which guides multi-stakeholder groups in identifying priority actions across ownerships and jurisdictions. TBSC-informed planning is now underway by five collaborative groups covering more than 20 million acres in eastern Oregon, helping coordinate conservation, fuels management, and post-fire recovery efforts.  

Her extension program is both highly productive and deeply impactful. In just over four years, Dr. Wollstein has delivered more than 100 non-credit educational events reaching over 12,000 participants, using innovative teaching approaches including field tours, interactive polling, geospatial tools, and immersive media. Her programs have directly supported successful funding proposals, including multi-million-dollar investments in strategic fuels treatments across priority landscapes.  

Dr. Wollstein is also an accomplished scholar, authoring more than 15 peer-reviewed articles and numerous extension publications that advance understanding of collaborative wildfire governance and strategic conservation. Through national workshops, invited presentations, and SRM plenary sessions, she has elevated rangeland fire science while empowering producers, practitioners, and policymakers alike.  

For the tremendous contributions to the science and management of rangeland ecosystems she has made, it is with great honor the Society of Range Management recognized Dr. Katie Wollstein with the Outstanding Young Professional Award.