Alisa Hove is an Associate Professor of Biology at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC. Dr. Hove came to North Carolina in 2012 after earning a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She has a B.S. in Biology from the University of California, Davis, and an M.A. in Biology from Humboldt State University (HSU), where she studied the pollination biology of a wildflower species native to the Klamath Mountains. After completing her Master’s degree, Alisa spent three years working as an adjunct botany lecturer at HSU and the nearby College of the Redwoods.

At Warren Wilson College, Dr. Hove co-chairs the Biology and Chemistry Department, supervises the Genetics Research Crew, and teaches a variety of courses, including Genetics, General Botany, and Plant Ecology. Dr. Hove and her students use a variety of field, laboratory, and mathematical approaches to explore the ecological and evolutionary responses of plant populations to environmental stress, the population genetics of vulnerable plant species—such as American ginseng—and the application of DNA barcoding to characterize biodiversity. A central focus of her research is understanding how climate change impacts plant populations and ecosystems, integrating tools from population genetics, eDNA analysis, and long-term ecological monitoring to track shifts in biodiversity and inform our understanding of ecosystem Resilience.