Below, is an excerpt from an EcoTone guest post by Holly Menninger, Director of Public Science for Your Wild Life at NC State University, in which she calls for greater recognition of science communicators within ESA's membership
Read the complete post here: http://www.esa.org/esablog/ecology-and-society/whats-the-future-of-ecologist-communicators/ I've been attending the ESA Annual Meeting since I was an incoming graduate student in 2000. More so than any time in the last 13 years, this year's meeting in Minneapolis featured a sustained waving of rally caps in support of ecologists participating in public engagement, communication and policy, greater than I've ever witnessed before. In fact, I wildly swung my own rally cap during an earlier Ignite session about bridging the gap between basic and applied science - I spoke passionately about the lessons we've gleaned from building a successful science outreach and communication program about biodiversity. I suggested approaches that could enhance other scientists' efforts to connect their science to the public, as required for addressing our planet's grand environmental challenges. Continuing the drumbeat at the Future of Ecology session, there was a call for ecologists to learn how to communicate and to recognize that communication is not a one-way transfer of information. Agreed, I thought. But then, as I surveyed the room full of nodding heads, I felt something powerful well up in me. It wasn't anger. It wasn't heartburn (although I did have Mexican food for lunch). It was more like that red-faced indignant feeling one gets when one is either deliberately or inadvertently ignored. I felt ignored because I sensed that many in the room (and those avidly live-tweeting the session) didn't realize or recognize the awesome pool of communications and outreach talent already within ESA's membership. The rallying calls for increased and improved science communication seemed aimed squarely at the Society's mid-to-late career academic scientist crowd, a crowd that has long needed arm-twisting and cajoling to engage the public, not a group that had already embraced public engagement as a core value. Whether by choice (as was my case) or circumstance (surely, you've seen the statistics about the availability of academic jobs), there are MANY of us who've carved out meaningful careers where we engage, communicate and reach out to diverse public audiences EVERYDAY. Some, like me, work largely in informal and formal science education - in museums and science centers, in classrooms, on the printed page or airwaves, and online. Others have applied their talents to addressing science policy issues at the federal, state, and local levels. Still others are based at non-governmental organizations or in Cooperative Extension, moving the outcomes of ecological research directly into the hands of stakeholders and resource managers. We all engage, communicate and reach out to public audiences in a professional capacity as scientist-communicators. And we're good at it. We have important skills and expertise that we are willing and excited to share with the members of our professional society - we would be the first to respond to a call to action if we felt that there was a seat at the table for us. Read more on ESA's EcoTone blog: http://www.esa.org/esablog/ecology-and-society/whats-the-future-of-ecologist-communicators/ Nadine Lymn ESA Director of Public Affairs Washington DC 20036 (202) 833-8773 x205 https://twitter.com/esa_org https://www.facebook.com/esa.org
