Christy Slay
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Mail code: 9208Campus: Tempe
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Dr. Slay is a conservation biologist and sustainability scientist. She started at The Sustainability Consortium (TSC) in 2009 and was appointed CEO in 2021, where she leads strategic planning to achieve TSC’s mission of “all products sustainable”. With her background in field biology and ecological research, Slay brings a conservation-forward lens to her work on supply chains, commodities, and environmental impact.
She leads many of TSC’s strategic corporate, academic, and ngo partnerships, and is the Principal Investigator on TSC’s grant funded projects including a multistakeholder program, Farmers for Soil Health, a USDA Advancing Markets for Producers project. Previous projects funded by the Walmart Foundation include the Ethical Charter for labor rights in produce supply chains, and CommodityMap, a supply chain risk tool covering all crops grown globally.
Her scientific contributions span both applied and field-based research. She publishes in leading journals, including Nature Climate Change on global forest carbon fluxes and Science on the drivers of global forest loss, work that directly connects conservation biology to global commodity systems. Outside of her work on sustainable supply chains, she co-leads cave ecology research for the HICAVES Project on the island of Hawai’i, where the team has discovered several new species in previously unexplored cave ecosystems, work featured in a PBS Nature documentary. The team has summarized the known extent of cave species on the Hawaiian Islands in a comprehensive checklist and biogeographic overview.
Prior to her graduate research, she developed conservation education curriculum and led strategic planning for the National Audubon Society. She also authored articles for Audubon Magazine, blending her field expertise with science communication. She brings 28 years of experience as an educator across collegiate and environmental education settings and has served on the board of the Ozark Natural Science Center, a residential nature education center, since 2014. Christy is an avid birder and enjoys exploring the Ozark trails and rivers with her cave biologist husband, Mike and their rescue dog Roxie.
2010-2012. Postdoctoral Research Associate. Environmental Dynamics Program and The Sustainability Consortium. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
2010. Ph.D. Biological Sciences. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
1998. B.A. Biology. Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas and attended Hendrix in London at Birkbeck College, London, U.K.
- Commodity supply chain traceability including food, forestry, mining
- Mapping environmental and social risks from consumer goods production including deforestation, child and forced labor, water scarcity, and biodiversity
- Application of remote sensing, GIS, and modeling to create sustainability solutions for business
- Scaling sustainable agriculture through partnerships, novel solutions, and research applications
- Sustainability metrics and performance assessment including barriers and opportunities for data mobility
- Migratory shrubland bird management and conservation
- Cave invertebrate conservation in Hawaii lava tube caves. HICAVES Project is discovering new invertebrate species in Hawaii lava tube caves
Sims, M.J., R. Stranimirova, A. Raichuck, et. al, 2025. Global drivers of forest loss at 1km resolution. Environmental Research Letters 20(7). https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/add606?utm_source=researchgate.net&utm_medium=article
Garcia-Moore, T., C. Urban, E. Killeen, J. Rockvam, C. Melhart Slay, A. Skoczlas Cole, 2023. Farmers’ Perspectives on Data: Feed Sustainability Data in Pork Supply Chains (Third Edition). Trust In Food™ at Farm Journal & The Sustainability Consortium. https://www.trustinfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TSC-Feed-Study-Report-FINAL-1-24.pdf
Hannelore, H., M.L. Porter, C.M. Slay, M.E. Slay, M. Streck, and R. Chong, 2024. From the dark side of paradise: a new natural replication of cave planthopper evolution from Hawaiian lava tubes (Hemiptera: Fulgoromorpha: Cixiidae). Zoological Journal.
Myers, A., J.K. Lowry, S.J. Taylor, M.E. Slay, C.M. Slay, M.L. Porter, 2023. A new species of Spelaeorchestia (Crustacea: Amphipoda: Talitroidea) from Lava Tube Caves on the Island of Hawaiʻi in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Records of the Hawaiian Biological Survey Bishop Museum Occasional Papers.
Slattery, D., K. Rayburn, C.M. Slay, and T. Garcia-Moore. 2021. Farmer perspectives on data 2021. Trust in Food. https://www.trustinfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Farmer-Perspectives-on-Data-2021.pdf
Harris, N., D. Gibbs, A. Baccini, R. Birdsey, S. de Bruin , M. Farina, L. Fatoyinbo, M. Hansen, M. Herold, R. Houghton, P. Potapov, D. Requena Suarez, R. Roman-Cuesta, S. S. Saatchi, C. Slay, S. Turubanova, and A. Tyukavina, 2021. Global maps of 21st century forest carbon fluxes. Nature Climate Change. https://rdcu.be/cdY40
Atwood, R., J. Clift, C.M. Slay, S. Meiburg, A. Wilcox, A. Oduoa, and T. Garcia, June, 2020. The efficacy and value generated from sustainable cotton programs in the United States. Meridian Institute Supply Chain Sustainability Research Fund. https://www.supplychainresearch.eco/effectiveness
Slay, C. and K. Dooley. Improving Supply Chain Resilience to Manage Climate Change Risks. HSBC Centre of Sustainable Finance, HSBC Sustainable Finance, June, 2020. https://www.sustainablefinance.hsbc.com/sustainable-infrastructure/supply-chain-resilience-and-climate-change
Slattery, D., K. Rayburn, and C.M. Slay, 2020. Farmer perspectives on data. Trust in Food. Retrieved June 3, 2020. https://www.trustinfood.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Farmer-Data-Perspectives-Research_final.pdf
Curtis, P.G., C.M. Slay, N.L. Harris, A. Tyukavina, and M. Hansen. 2018. Classifying drivers of global forest loss. Science 361: 1108-1111.
Slay, C.M. and P.G. Curtis, 2017. Coffee Production and Sustainability: The Sustainability Consortium’s Commodity Mapping Report. The Sustainability Consortium. Retrieved Feb 16, 2018. https://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/downloads/coffee-production-sustainability-sustainability-consortiums-commodity-mapping-report/
Slay, C.M. and A. Raster, 2017. Sustainable Commodity Supply Chains Project: Case studies and a framework for addressing sustainability in commodity procurement and supplier codes of conduct. The Sustainability Consortium. https://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/impact/case-studies/sustainable-commodities-project-framework/
Slay, C.M., J. Reijs, and A. Raster, 2016. How to get sustainability data following in agriculture supply chains. The Sustainability Consortium. Retrieved Feb 16, 2018. https://www.sustainabilityconsortium.org/downloads/how-to-get-sustainability-data-flowing-in-agriculture-supply-chains/
Slay, C., K. Ellison, C.A. Ribic, K. Smith, and C. Schmitz. 2012. Nocturnal Activity of Nesting Shrubland and Grassland Passerines. Pp. 105-115 in C.A. Ribic, F.R. Thompson, and P.J. Pietz (editors), Video surveillance of nesting birds. Studies in Avian Biology Series (vol. 43), University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Slay, C.M. and K.G. Smith. 2009. A comparison of nest success rates of four shrubland specialists in conservation-managed fields to other managed and unmanaged shrublands. Pp. 705-712 in Rich, T.D., C. Arizmendi, D.W. Demarest, and C. Thompson, editors. Proceedings of the Fourth International Partners in Flight Conference. 13-16 February 2008. McAllen, Texas. Partners in Flight. 712 pp.
Stephenson, S.L., M.E. Slay, C.M. Slay, and A.E. Tuggle. 2007. Cave crickets (Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae) as vectors of dictyostelids. Entomological News 118: 292-295.
Current grant-funded projects
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Farmers for Soil Health (FSH) USDA Advancing Markets for Producers Partnership, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation