Bio
Mary Kathryn (Kitty) McCracken has worked in the Environmental Sciences Division for over 25 years. Currently, she is the Ecosystem Management Coordinator for the Oak Ridge Reservation Natural Resources Management Team. In this capacity, Kitty is responsible for creating and implementing the Invasive Plant Management Plan for the Oak Ridge Reservation and working with other team members to create and implement the Native Grassland Community Management and Wildlife Management Plans for the Oak Ridge Reservation. In addition, she serves on the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, the ORNL Landscape Committee and is QA Coordinator for the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Group. Kitty is the SME regarding bats for the ORR, and conducts mist net capture and acoustic surveys across the ORR. She holds a USFWS permit to work with Threatened and Endangered bat species on the ORR, and works with and provides guidance to DOE-ORO, various contractors on the ORR, and USFWS regarding projects which may impact T&E bats. Additionally, Kitty provides support to multiple tasks within the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health Group, including fish community studies, biological and reproductive indicators of contamination, and bioaccumulation studies. Kitty has worked with several groups in the Environmental Sciences Division at ORNL, including the former Bioindicators of Contamination Group and Earth Sciences Group. Prior to her time at ORNL, Kitty worked at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, Zoology Department; Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, Anatomy Department and Center for Neural Sciences, and the Indiana University Medical School, Indianapolis, IN, Clinical Pathology Laboratory.
Through her role as Ecosystem Management Coordinator for the ORR NRMT, Kitty is also involved with several state-wide organizations: Tennessee Invasive Plant Council, president since 2015; Tennessee Bat Working Group, board member at large.
Awards
Environmental Sciences Division-2018--Distinguished Achievement Award: Science Serving Society
Specialized Equipment
Wildlife Acoustics SM4 Bat acoustic detectors and Kaleidoscope acoustic call analysis software
Specialized equipment for use in herbicide application.
A wide variety of laboratory equipment