SARAH JOHNSON
New! Assistant Professor of Biology, Grand Valley State University (Fall 2025)
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Previous: Professor of Natural Resources & Biology, Northland College​​
Ph.D. - Botany - University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.S. - Biology - East Carolina University
B.S. - Biology - Northland College
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Sarah Johnson is a plant ecologist whose research examines biodiversity and ecological change across terrestrial and wetland ecosystems in the Great Lakes region. She studies how plant communities and at-risk species, such as rare coastal plants and forest understory species, respond to environmental drivers such as water-level fluctuations, invasive species, herbivory, and land-use changes. She collaborates with natural resource agencies, tribal organizations, and conservation partners to develop ecological monitoring strategies and inform management decisions that support biodiversity and habitat resilience.
Sarah recently made the move to SW Michigan to live and teach within the Lake Michigan watershed at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI. For over a decade, Sarah was a Professor of Natural Resources and Biology at Northland College on the south shore of Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin, where she received merit awards for excellence in both teaching and research. At GVSU, Sarah looks forward to continuing to integrate research into her teaching by incorporating hands-on fieldwork and student-led projects. Through these experiences, students develop skills in plant identification, data collection, and conservation decision-making, preparing them for careers in ecology and natural resource management. Sarah has mentored students in a wide range of applied research initiatives, from monitoring rare arctic disjunct plant populations on Lake Superior’s rocky shoreline (Isle Royale and Apostle Islands) to studying the rate of losses and gains in spring ephemeral and summer-active wildflowers in the Chequamegon National Forest. She is a co-principal investigator on a long-term study of aquatic plant community change and Eurasian watermilfoil invasion in the Turtle Flambeau Flowage, a 13,000-acre lake system in northeastern Wisconsin.
Her career has been shaped by a long history of collaboration with the National Park Service and other conservation organizations. Early on, she worked as a Biological Technician at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, launching a commitment to ecological research in the Great Lakes that continues today. She later contributed to the National Park Service’s Great Lakes Inventory & Monitoring Network, helping to design long-term vegetation monitoring protocols for national parks across the region. She loves dusting off old data sets and is passionate about supporting long-term monitoring for conservation and management purposes.
Sarah holds a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.S. in Biology from East Carolina University, and a B.S. in Biology from Northland College.
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