Dr. Kevin Bonine

Director of Education and Outreach

Kevin Bonine grew up in Tucson, graduating from TUSD’s University High School. He then attended the University of Arizona as a 1990 Flinn Scholar earning undergraduate degrees in both Economics (BA) and in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (BS with Honors). Kevin’s graduate degrees, both MS and PhD, are from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he focused on evolutionary physiology using lizards as a model system. His present research on reptiles and amphibians includes Gila monsters and canyon treefrogs, with emphasis on natural history, ecology, population genetics, and conservation. Kevin teaches many well-regarded UA courses, including introductory biology, herpetology, conservation biology, and vertebrate physiology. One of his newer courses is a collaboration with ASDM and Biosphere 2, titled Sonoran Desert Discovery, wherein UA students teach desert ecology to school children and the public. During the summer presession, Kevin teaches a popular three-week field course that explores the ecology and natural history of our region - from atop the Santa Catalina Mountains, through the Sonoran Desert, ending at the Desert Sea in the Northern Gulf of California in Mexico. In 2012 Kevin was recognized with the UA College of Science’s Distinguished Early-Career Teaching Award. Kevin is also Director of Outreach Initiatives in the College of Science at the University of Arizona and serves on the boards of directors of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Friends of Saguaro National Park, and the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (CEDO) in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora.