Mal Graham

I am the strategy director at Wild Animal Initiative, a scientific nonprofit supporting research into wild animal welfare. I'm currently on sabbatical.

In May 2025, I started a postdoc at NYU within the Wildlife Inclusive Local Design (WILD) Lab, studying urban wild animal welfare.

Before that, I completed a PhD in Engineering Mechanics at Virginia Tech, working with Jake Socha on the biomechanics of gap crossing in jumping and gliding snakes.  

Protocol study:  Researching environmental and health impact assessments, and examining the possibilities or otherwise for conducting similar assessments of wild animal welfare in the context of land use and infrastructure decision-making. 

Bird-window collisions: I am conducting work to generate better estimates of rates of non-lethal collisions, and aiming to eventually generate collision trajectories and associate these with health outcomes.

I have a keen interest in animal welfare and how it is considered within the sciences. 

• I am a member of the BAHSCR Roundtable on Animal Welfare

• I am the Board Treasurer for the Arthropoda Foundation, which makes grants to study insect welfare. 

• I have served as an advisory board member for the Morris Animal Foundation for grants focused on the health and welfare of reptiles & amphibians.