Steven Castleberry, associate professor of wildlife ecology in the University of Georgia’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, received the Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Teaching at the School’s 74th Annual Spring Awards Banquet. The award recognizes Castleberry’s contributions to undergraduate and graduate teaching and advising.

Castleberry, a wildlife ecologist who specializes in wildlife responses to human caused habitat changes, has been a teacher and researcher at UGA for five years. He teaches courses in vertebrate natural history and field mammalogy. He was also recognized for outstanding teaching in 2003 when students elected him Xi Sigma Pi Professor of the Year.

“It was apparent from the beginning that Dr. Castleberry has an extraordinary natural talent as an educator,” said Bruce Bongarten, associate dean for academic affairs in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. “And students’ admiration for him isn’t based on sympathetic grading–Dr. Castleberry is among the toughest graders in the School.”

Castleberry earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in forest resources at the University of Georgia, and a PhD in wildlife and fisheries resources at West Virginia University. Before coming to UGA in 2000, he was studying the conservation and management of the Allegheny woodrat in the central Appalachians.

Castleberry’s research examines the impacts of human activities on on wildlife and wildlife habitat. Among other projects, he is studying the impact of intensive forest management on wildlife habitat, the interaction between Loggerhead sea turtles and commercial fishing boats on the Georgia coast and the causes of population decline in the endangered Key Largo woodrat.

He is a member of The Wildlife Society and is faculty advisor to UGA’s student Wildlife Society Chapter, which took first place in the Southeastern Wildlife Conclave this spring at the University of Florida. Castleberry, who is from Cumming, Georgia, currently lives in Madison County with wife, Nikki and daughter Makenzie.