Theodore Willis

Theodore Willis serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern Maine within the Department of Environmental Science and Policy, College of Science, Technology, and Health, and maintains an adjunct association with the University of Maine's School of Marine Sciences.

His academic background includes:

• PhD in Limnology & Oceanography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied long-term fish community dynamics in Northern Wisconsin Lakes and developed expertise in large dataset analysis during a 2003 fellowship at the University of Toronto's Jackson Lab.

Dr. Willis leads a restoration ecology program focused on Maine's anadromous fish systems, conducting research on alewife population dynamics, river herring passage capabilities, food web ecology in the Gulf of Maine, molecular genetics, and elver migration timing. Current projects examine intersections between alewife restoration, fisheries management, and citizen science collaborations with Maine indigenous communities.

He mentors one to two undergraduate students annually in quantitative research methods, emphasizing real-world data collection and encouraging regional conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications as pathways to graduate studies.

His community-engaged work integrates indigenous knowledge systems and citizen scientists to advance diadromous fish conservation across Maine river ecosystems.