John McLaughlin is a Professor in the Environmental Sciences Department at College of the Environment. His teaching and research interests span population ecology, wildlife ecology, conservation biology, and ecological restoration. He teaches courses in ecology, natural history, population biology, conservation biology, biostatistics, wildlife ecology, and riparian conservation. His research interests include carnivore-habitat relationships, dynamics of animal populations, predator-prey interactions, wildlife conservation, and wildlife roles in restoration. He has worked with populations of mammals, birds, lizards, and butterflies.

Before coming to WWU, John was an adjunct assistant professor at Utah State University and the Director of Research at the Teton Science School, in Grand Teton National Park. He did postdoctoral research at the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University, and at the Environmental Sciences Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He completed his Ph.D. and M.S. in biological sciences at Stanford University. Before doing graduate work, he worked as a wilderness guide in the Adirondack mountains, New York. He earned undergraduate degrees at Northwestern University (B.A. in integrated science; ecology and evolutionary biology; biochemistry, molecular biology, and cell biology).