Yale ecologist David Skelly will take a one-year sabbatical from his role as director of the Yale Peabody Museum, beginning on July 1, to pursue research on the evolutionary responses of biodiversity to a changing climate, President Maurie McInnis and Provost Scott Strobel announced on Thursday.
The research project will draw on 29 years of data Skelly has collected at Yale-Myers Forest, located in northeastern Connecticut.
Skelly, who is also the Frank R. Oastler Professor of Ecology at the Yale School of the Environment, will remain a member of the Yale faculty during the one-year sabbatical, McInnis and Strobel wrote in a message to the Peabody Museum community. He will return to his role at the Peabody Museum, where he has been director since 2014, on July 1, 2026.
Erika Edwards, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, will serve as acting director of the Peabody during Skelly’s one-year sabbatical, they wrote in the message.
Last March, the Yale Peabody Museum reopened after a historic four-year renovation project that transformed the museum into a dynamic center of participatory learning, groundbreaking research, and more accessible exhibitions.
“Serving as director of the Peabody is, literally, a childhood dream for me,” Skelly said. “I couldn’t have foreseen the opportunity to reimagine a place that I love and have been visiting since I was a young kid.
“Now that the museum is open and thriving, it is a great time for me to reengage with my research. I am excited to take my first research leave in many years. However, I am equally excited to come back to the museum after that. With Erika at the helm, I leave the Peabody in very capable hands.”
Erika Edwards
Edwards, the curator of botany at the Peabody Museum since 2017, is well-versed in the museum’s community and collections, McInnis and Strobel wrote. And as director of Yale’s Marsh Botanical Garden, they added, she is also experienced in steering plans to support a university-wide resource for research, instruction, and education.
Her own research focuses on plant evolution, using a wide range of biological data to understand the many ways plant species have adapted their form and function over time.
“The opportunity to be a Peabody curator is one of the main reasons I joined Yale’s faculty, and the museum has been an important home for me here,” Edwards said. “Dave has done a remarkable job leading the Peabody’s transformation, and I am happy to step in and facilitate his well-deserved research sabbatical. I look forward to furthering the Peabody’s mission and supporting the good work that happens here every day.”
In their message, McInnis and Strobel wrote: “We wish David a productive year of research, beginning in July, and look forward to welcoming him back to his post. We are also grateful to Erika for stepping in to lead the museum at such an exciting time in its history.”
