Denice Heller Wardrop is a Senior Scientist and a Professor of Geography and Ecology at the Pennsylvania State University. She also serves as the Assistant Director, Environment of the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment, and as Associate Director of Riparia. She began her professional life with a B.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia. She was subsequently attracted to all things water, received a M.S. in Environmental Sciences, and was a practicing consulting engineer for over 10 years. Her husband introduced her to Happy Valley, whereupon she embarked on an academic career by receiving a PhD in Ecology from Penn State. She tries to spend as much time as possible in the wettest portions of the Mid-Atlantic, assessing the impacts of human activity on the functioning of aquatic systems, primarily freshwater wetlands and streams. She is endlessly fascinated by the behavior of ecosystems, their response to stress, and ways to articulate their functioning and role in human well-being. Denice is the Pennsylvania governor's appointee to the Chesapeake Bay Program's Science and Technical Advisory Committee, and currently serves as its chair. She also directs the Mid-Atlantic Wetlands Workgroup.

Denice is now the Executive Director of the Chesapeake Research Consortium.