Joan Maloof studied Plant Science at the University of Delaware, Environmental Science at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Ecology at the University of Maryland College Park. She has published research articles about pollination biology in the journals Ecology and The American Jornal of Botany (among others). Since 2002 she has expanded her ecological studies into the forest. Her book "Teaching the Trees: Lessons from the Forest" (University of Georgia Press, 2005) won an Honorable Mention from the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment. Maloof is currently at work on a book about old-growth forests in the eastern United States. She teaches at Salisbury University in Maryland.