Rosemary Gillespie is an evolutionary biologist and professor of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, Division of Insect Biology at the University of California, Berkeley.

[12] She uses islands of known age and isolation to assess the combined temporal and spatial dimension of biogeography and determine patterns of diversification, adaptive radiation, and associated community assembly with a focus on spiders and insects.

[14] She currently has a large program examining the importance of priority, sequence, abundance, and interaction strengths in determining how biological communities develop,[15] and how this might render them resilient to intrusion by non-native species.

Gillespie led "Exploring California Biodiversity" (2003-2016), a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded museum and field-based outreach program focused on graduate fellows and high-school/middle-school students in minority-dominated urban schools in the Bay Area.

Prior to moving to UC Berkeley she was part of an effort for Using Hawaii's Unique Biota for Biology Education, an NSF program that worked with underrepresented Pacific Island students.