Director of the North Texas Research Program and Assistant Professor
Serving Since
Dr. Levi Heffelfinger is currently the Director of the North Texas Research Program and an Assistant Professor at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Levi grew up with an early influence in wildlife science in southern Arizona and earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona. His M.S. degree from University of Nevada, Reno involved evaluating the spatial ecology and modeling demographics of mule deer amid arid environmental constraints on the Mojave National Preserve in southern California. Levi received a Ph.D. with the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and also served as the Boone & Crockett Fellow in Ungulate Research. His doctoral research focused on modeling the influence of spatio-temporal fluctuations in forage on mule deer movement and population performance and experimentally evaluating the influence of early life nutrition on ontogeny and reproductive output in white-tailed deer. His current research focuses on nutritional ecology and connecting population metrics to landscape variability. Much of his work involves large mammal conservation issues throughout arid regions including the southwestern United States and the southern Great Plains. Levi is stationed in Lubbock, TX and enjoys camping, hiking, wildlife photography, fishing, and hunting.