Our Team

Dr. Jim Anderson, Director

James C. Kennedy Waterfowl & Wetlands Conservation Center

Dr. James T. (Jim) Anderson is the James C. Kennedy Endowed Professor of Waterfowl and Wetland Ecology, the Director of the James C. Kennedy Waterfowl and Wetland Center, and a faculty member in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation at Clemson University. Jim arrived at Clemson in August 2021. Until August 2021, he was a Wildlife and Fisheries Resources Professor and the Davis-Michael Professor of Forestry and Natural Resources at West Virginia University (WVU). He started at WVU in January 1999 as an assistant professor, became an associate professor in 2004, and became a full professor in 2009. He earned a B.S. in wildlife from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (1991), an M.S. in range and wildlife management through the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville (1994), and a Ph.D. in wildlife science from Texas Tech University (1997).

Jim’s research centers on wetland and riparian wildlife ecology and wetland/ riparian management. He has published >150 scientific articles, mentored over 60 graduate students, and garnered >$29 million in grants and contracts. Jim has taught or co-taught various courses,including Waterfowl Ecology, Introduction to Wildlife and Fisheries Resources, The Tradition of Hunting, Renewable Resources Policy and Governance, Applied Wetlands Ecology and Management, and Restoration Ecology. He has received multiple department and college awards for outstanding researcher, teacher, and service provider. He has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Texas Tech University and the Outstanding Faculty Award from the West Virginia University Forestry Alumni Association.

In his spare time, Jim likes to garden, hunt, and go on adventures with his wife, Heather, and their Labrador retriever, Gideon.

Email Jim

For more details please view Jim's profile.

Dr. Nick Masto, Assistant Director

James C. Kennedy Waterfowl & Wetlands Conservation Center

Dr. Nicholas M. (Nick) Masto is the inaugural Assistant Director of the James C. Kennedy Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation Center and a faculty member in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation (Aug 2026). Nick received professional training as a waterfowl ecologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Habitat and Population Evaluation Team (2024-2026) and a postdoctoral scholar at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (2023-2024), where he developed spatial-statistical models to help guide habitat conservation and investment decisions for waterfowl and other migratory birds. Nick received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from Clemson University (2015 and 2018, respectively) and his Ph.D. in Environmental Science at Tennessee Technological University (2023).

Nick is a landscape and movement ecologist with a fascination for the incredible journeys and adaptations by migratory birds, specifically waterfowl. He applies these principles and biological expertise across hierarchical spatial scales to advance our understanding and ultimately, the conservation of waterfowl, migratory birds, and the wetland and grassland ecosystems upon which they depend. He couples diverse field-based and quantitative methods to examine how environmental and anthropogenic pressures drive individual behavior, population movements, and demographic trends. By linking fine-scale behavioral ecology to broad-scale population processes, he hopes to inform conservation strategies and policies that are actionable, ecologically sound, and spatially relevant at state, federal, and NGO levels.

As a passionate duck hunter, Nick’s personal curiosity has provided inspiration for professional pursuits. He often wonders how habitat management, weather, or hunting influences waterfowl behavior, which has shaped his scientific inquiries around these applied topics. Nick also enjoys fishing, boating, bird watching, reading, and exploring National Parks with his partner Ellie, son Denham, and fox red labrador retriever, June.

Crystal Anderson, Executive Assistant for Research and Ph.D. Student

James C. Kennedy Waterfowl & Wetlands Conservation Center

Crystal Anderson began with James C. Kennedy Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation Center in December of 2023 as a Wildlife Biologist I and is now the Executive Assistant for Research. She is also a Ph.D. student in Clemson University’s Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation under Dr. Jim Anderson. She supports graduate research on waterfowl, wetlands, and other wildlife through proposal development, project coordination, and fieldwork. Her doctoral research partners with underserved coastal communities to advance pollinator education, strengthen food security through sustainable community gardens, assess wetland pollinator diversity, and examine how sea-level rise and saltwater intrusion may affect threatened pollinators and their host plants.

Crystal earned a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology and an M.S. in Forest Resources from Clemson University. Before joining the Kennedy Center, she taught forestry, ecology, recreation management, soils, and vertebrate biology at Horry-Georgetown Technical College. Crystal is a published author, having co-written "Winter Tree Identification for the Southern Appalachians and Piedmont - a Photographic Guide" with Dr. Donald Hagan and Hailey Malone. She utilized her photography skills to capture detailed images for this identification guide, which is now used in teaching dendrology at schools and universities across the southeast.

In her spare time, Crystal advocates for Autism awareness, loves to sing locally, and spends quality time with her husband and two teenage children in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Email Crystal

For more details please view Crystal's profile.

Kyle Hoffman, Wildlife Biologist I

James C. Kennedy Waterfowl & Wetlands Conservation Center

Kyle Elms began with the James C. Kennedy Waterfowl and Wetlands Conservation Center in February 2026. He grew up in Northern Virginia in the DC suburbs and graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.S. in wildlife and fisheries biology. Shortly after graduation he headed west to Idaho and aided the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) with their wetland restoration, invasive species, waterfowl, and pollinator projects at Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). Bear lake was his first hands-on wildlife work and very quickly he knew he wanted to continue to help manage this nation’s wildlife and habitats. For two years he was a part of the tallgrass prairie biological team for Western Minnesota stationed at Rydell and Glacial Ridge NWRs. While in Minnesota his fieldwork involved monitoring grassland restorations and surveying bumblebees. He also helped educate school groups about the ecology of the tallgrass ecosystem and the importance of the USFWS in protecting them. When in the office he managed and cleaned old prairie reconstruction data from throughout Western Minnesota. Making it more readily available on the online Prairie Reconstruction Initiative database. The database is a crucial tool for land managers to better understand and share how their actions impact restorations.

With his background in land management, Kyle is excited to be working at a lab with management at the basis of its research. As a staff wildlife biologist with the James C. Kennedy Waterfowl and Wetland Conservation Center, he will be using his broad expertise to aid other staff and graduate students in their research. He also has developed and implemented a wildlife monitoring project using camera traps to observe wildlife behavior around rice trunks. This monitoring project will lay the groundwork for the ecological portion of future graduate research into redesigning the materials used for trunks.

In his free time, he can be seen photographing just about anything, birding, hiking, reading a book in a hammock, and now exploring the new ecosystems of South Carolina.

Email Kyle

For more details please view Kyle's profile.