Dr. Boersma is the Director of the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels in the Department of Biology, holds the Wadsworth Endowed Chair in Conservation Science, and has been a professor in the department since 1998. Fieldwork has always been her passion, and her work spans 5 decades. In the 1970’s she started working with Galápagos penguins to determine how many there were, and now is trying to expand their population by providing high quality nests. Fork-tailed storm-petrels in Alaska kept her busy for a decade, and her Magellanic penguins studies in Argentina continues for over 40 years. She enjoys the penguin colony because it is noisy, bustling with activity, is over 100 miles from the nearest city, and often internet free. Dr. Boersma’s studies helped move tanker lanes farther offshore to decrease the number of penguins swimming through petroleum and informed legislation for Marine Protected areas in the Province of Chubut, Argentina. In 2020 she endowed the Boersma Chair in Natural History and Conservation in the Center for Ecosystem Sentinels to ensure a place for long-term conservation studies at the university.

Dr. Boersma received her B.Sc. Honors from Central Michigan University in 1969, and her Ph.D. in Zoology, from Ohio State University in 1974. Her thesis was titled: The Galapagos Penguin: A Study of Adaptations for Life in an Unpredictable Environment."