M. Siobhan Fennessy is the Jordan Professor of Environmental Studies and Professor of Biology at Kenyon College located in Ohio (USA). She is an ecosystem ecologist working with students to study the response of wetland plant communities and the carbon biogeochemical cycle to human disturbance, and how that can be reversed through ecological restoration. Fennessy previously served on the faculty of the Geography Department of University College London and has worked for many years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s wetlands program. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship (Spain) to study carbon dynamics in Mediterranean wetlands, and recently served as a lead on the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) for the Americas, investigating the consequences of biodiversity loss. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Ramsar Convention’s Science and Technical Review Panel.