Inspire Session
Career Track
Molly Reichenborn
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States
Cait Rottler
South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, United States
Fiona Soper
Assistant Professor
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
This session brings together speakers from varied backgrounds conducting field work in ecology, both in terms of the ecosystems represented and personal experience in navigating the challenges presented by traditional ecological field work. The primary goal for this session is for speakers to share lessons learned from their own experiences, including skills they wish they had learned prior to conducting field work, navigating assumptions around physical, mental, and social expectations in the field, overcoming deficits in knowledge considered “commonplace” by those with experience in the outdoors, and other personal and professional barriers to conducting successful field work in ecology. With this session, we hope to address and help minimize barriers to ecologists beginning their careers, especially those who have limited or no experience preparing for work in the field or for whom field work presents unique challenges. We aim to do this both by providing actionable information to those new to the field and by offering insight to mid-and late career ecologists so they may be better equipped to recognize and reduce barriers that their advisees face. Though we cannot address all aspects of field work in ecology, we expect this session will be valuable to a broad ecological audience that can identify with and benefit from the experiences shared in this session. In addition, the advice shared during the session will also be compiled into a series of blog posts to be made available on the Early Career Ecologist Section website to those unable to attend the session in-person.
Presenting Author: Josue Arteaga-Torres – Hocking College
Presenting Author: Ezra Kottler – George Washington University
Co-author: Vaughn Shirey – Georgetown University
Presenting Author: Michelle L. Talal, Ph.D. – Tel Aviv University
Presenting Author: Pacifica Sommers – University of Colorado Boulder
Presenting Author: Cait Rottler – South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center
Presenting Author: Lina Aragon Baquero – University of Waterloo
Presenting Author: Tara B. Bishop – USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station
Co-author: Michael Bishop – Author partner
Presenting Author: Katherine Hayes – University of Colorado
Co-author: Trevor Carter – University of Colorado Denver
Co-author: Phoebe Cook – University of Virginia
Co-author: Erin Twaddell – University of Colorado Denver
Co-author: Brian Buma – University of Colorado Denver
Presenting Author: Molly Reichenborn – New Mexico State University