Ellen Ryan-Colton is a PhD candidate in the Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL) under the supervision of Dr. Christine Schlesinger, with a current focus on arid zone ecology, indigenous ecological knowledge and landscape change. Ellen has lived and worked in the remote APY Lands of northern South Australia, working with Aboriginal ranger groups to achieve their conservation and cultural goals, and currently partners with Aboriginal people from the APY Lands for her PhD research.  Ellen is an active member of multiple state, interstate and international groups focussing on better understanding and management of invasive species, particularly drawing on her knowledge of buffel grass impacts in central Australia. At an international level, Ellen is a fellow of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) assessment of invasive alien species, and a member of the IPBES Indigenous Local Knowledge liaison group, for the next 3 years.   Prior to her PhD research, Ellen has worked as an ecologist for over 10 years focussed on threatened species recovery, protected area management and landscape scale threats. Ellen has a First Class Honours in Bachelor of Environmental Science from the University of Wollongong.