Our researchers
Mal Graham
Welfare assessment | Network effects | Academic field development | Ethics Current projects
Supporting development of rodent fertility control
Scoping potential high-impact wild animal welfare interventions
About Mal
Mal Graham is the Wildlife Technology Fund Program Director at Renaissance Philanthropy and an affiliated scientist of Wild Animal Initiative. Mal works on promoting interest in the field of wild animal welfare science, and on intervention-focused research. In their research, Mal is interested in how welfare changes can permute through animal interaction networks. They are currently working to identify areas where science and innovation can lead to reliably beneficial improvements in the lives of wild animals. Mal also serves as the board treasurer at the Arthropoda Foundation.
Previous experience & education
Mal was Executive Director of Wild Animal Initiative from 2019–2022, and Strategy Director from 2022–2026. Prior to this, Mal worked as a receptionist in a veterinary clinic, volunteered at local animal shelters, and completed a reptile husbandry internship at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C.
Mal earned their PhD in Engineering Mechanics from Virginia Tech, where their dissertation investigated dynamic gap-crossing movements in jumping and flying snakes. Mal also holds a Bachelor of Physics and Philosophy from the University of Oxford.
Selected publications
*Elliott, V., et al. (2026). The emerging field of wild animal welfare science. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 41, 912–923. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2026.06.003
*Graham M., Fischer B. (2026). Research sense: Incorporating animals’ sensory capacities in animal care and study design. Laboratory Animals, 60(2), 220–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/00236772251385784
Graham, M., & Socha, J. J. (2020). Going the distance: The biomechanics of gap‐crossing behaviors. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology 333(1), 60–73. https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.2266
*Denotes papers published while working at Wild Animal Initiative.
Media work
Measuring Wild Animal Welfare (Our Hen House podcast, 2021)
The wild frontier of animal welfare (Vox, 2021)
Investigating Wild Animal Welfare (In Tune to Nature podcast, 2020)
These snakes can jump—and scientists want to know why. (National Geographic, 2019)