Lacey Hughey is an ecologist specializing in the use of animal movement data to inform conservation decision‑making. She is the Strategic Partnerships and Science–Policy Integration Lead at the Center for Conservation Technology and Innovation at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, where she builds collaborative frameworks that connect researchers, practitioners, technologists, and policymakers. Lacey is a co‑founder and co‑chair of Move BON, the first GEO BON‑endorsed Biodiversity Observation Network for Animal Movement, working to mobilize and integrate movement data for biodiversity monitoring and decision‑making. Her work emphasizes aligning conservation technology with global biodiversity frameworks and strengthening pathways from data to action.

Article

• Schwandner, Imogen A., Morrison, Thomas A., Hopcraft, J. G., Wall, Jake, Hughey, Lacey, Boone, Randall B., Ogutu, Joseph O., Jakes, Andrew F., Kifugo, Shem C., Limo, Campaign, Ndambuki Mwiu, Stephen, Nyaga, Vasco, Olff, Han, Ojwang, Gordon O., Sairowua, Wilson, Sasine, Jackson, Senteu, Jully S., Sopia, Daniel, Worden, Jeffrey, and Stabach, Jared A. 2025. "Predicting the impact of targeted fence removal on connectivity in a migratory ecosystem." Ecological Applications, 35, (1). https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.3094. 2025
• Wu, Zijing, Zhang, Ce, Gu, Xiaowei, Duporge, Isla, Hughey, Lacey F., Stabach, Jared A., Skidmore, Andrew K., Hopcraft, J. Grant C., Lee, Stephen J. J., Atkinson, Peter M., McCauley, Douglas J., Lamprey, Richard, Ngene, Shadrack, and Wang, Tiejun. 2023. "Deep learning enables satellite-based monitoring of large populations of terrestrial mammals across heterogeneous landscape." Nature Communications, 14, (1) 3072. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-38901-y. 2023
• Mertes, Katherine, Ressijac, Catherine A., Moraes, Rosana N., Hughey, Lacey F., Alegre, Luisa H. Porto, Horning, Megan, Buk, Tara, Harwood, Arielle, Layman, Lawrence, Mathews, Christopher, Vance, Morgan, Reed, Dolores, Stabach, Jared A., and Goldenberg, Shifra Z. 2022. "Assessing neophobia and exploration while accounting for social context: an example application in scimitar-horned oryx." Mammalian Biology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-022-00271-1. 2022
• Majaliwa, M. M., Hughey, L. F., Stabach, J. A., Songer, Melissa, Whyle, K., Alhashmi, A. E. A., Al Remeithi, M., Pusey, R., Chaibo, H. A., Walsoumon, A. Ngari, Hatcha, M. Hassan, Wacher, T., Ngaba, C., Newby, J., Leimgruber, P., and Mertes, K. 2022. "Experience and social factors influence movement and habitat selection in scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah) reintroduced into Chad." Movement Ecology, 10, (1) 47. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40462-022-00348-z. 2022
• Stabach, Jared A., Hughey, Lacey F., Crego, Ramiro D., Fleming, Christen H., Hopcraft, J. Grant C., Leimgruber, Peter, Morrison, Thomas A., Ogutu, Joseph O., Reid, Robin S., Worden, Jeffrey S., and Boone, Randall B. 2022. "Increasing Anthropogenic Disturbance Restricts Wildebeest Movement Across East African Grazing Systems." Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.846171. 2022
• Benitez, Lorena, Kilian, J. Werner, Wittemyer, George, Hughey, Lacey F., Fleming, Chris H., Leimgruber, Peter, du Preez, Pierre, and Stabach, Jared A. 2022. "Precipitation, vegetation productivity, and human impacts control home range size of elephants in dryland systems in northern Namibia." Ecology and Evolution, 12, (9). https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9288. 2022
• Hughey, Lacey F., Shoemaker, Kevin T., Stewart, Kelley M., McCauley, Douglas J., and Cushman, J. Hall. 2021. "Effects of human-altered landscapes on a reintroduced ungulate: Patterns of habitat selection at the rangeland-wildland interface." Biological Conservation, 257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109086. 2021
• Hardesty-Moore, Molly, Deinet, Stefanie, Freeman, Robin, Titcomb, Georgia C., Dillon, Erin M., Stears, Keenan, Klope, Maggie, Bui, An, Orr, Devyn, Young, Hillary S., Miller-ter Kuile, Ana, Hughey, Lacey F., and McCauley, Douglas J. 2018. "Migration in the Anthropocene: how collective navigation, environmental system and taxonomy shape the vulnerability of migratory species." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373, (1746). https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0017. 2018

Conference Paper

• Kumar, Satish, Zhang, Bowen, Gudavalli, Chandrakanth, Levenson, Connor, Hughey, Lacey, Stabach, Jared A., Amoke, Irene, Ojwang, Gordon, Mukeka, Joseph, Mwiu, Stephen, Ogutu, Joseph, Frederick, Howard, and Manjunath, B. S. 2024. "WildlifeMapper: Aerial Image Analysis for Multi-Species Detection and Identification." in 2024 IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR). 12594–12604. IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/CVPR52733.2024.01197. 2024