​California Invasive Plant Council

I work with the California Invasive Plant Council (Cal-IPC) as the a Student Liaison to the board. They are an incredibly dedicated and diverse group of individuals working hard to protect California’s natural areas from the environmental, economic, and aesthetic damage of invasive plant species. Through their work they have developed awesome decision-making tools to map and prioritize invasive plant eradication across California (CalWeedMapper & Whippet). Our symposium is a great place to meet other land managers, researchers, and restoration practitioners in the field. At each symposium, the student section holds a networking panel and lunch at each symposium and we are currently planning more activities to get students involved and connected with plant management across California. 

Check out all the awesome work they do here.

Panel on Non-Academic Careers in Conservation

After graduate school I plan on pursuing a career outside of academia. I believe there is an overwhelming need for academic institutions to provide support and opportunities for graduate students who are interested in the non-academic career path. This is one of the reasons (among the obvious selfish ones) I helped to organize a panel on non-academic careers in conservation in April 2016.

.The panel featured six PhD-holding professionals from a variety of fields: Heather Tallis of The Nature Conservancy, Amanda Stanley of Wilburforce, Brett Dickson of Conservation Science Partners, Benét Duncan of Ocean Science Trust, Amber Mace of the California Council on Science and Technology and a Debra Schlafmann of Landscape Conservation Cooperative Network. With over 70 graduate students and post-docs in attendance, the event was a huge success.
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.The event lasted all day with a question and answer session in the morning, followed by a catered lunch, and smaller afternoon breakout sessions with pairs of the panelists leading smaller discussion groups. Throughout the day, the panelists offered some incredibly insightful advice as they talked about their paths to their current career. Some gems that stuck with me:

• Heather Tallis talked about how important it is to set your work-life balance now, as a graduate student, because it never gets easier.
• Nearly all of the panelists spoke about their windy paths to their current careers and how nothing ever goes as planned. Bottom line: you don’t have to know where you want to end up, you just have to think about what your next step should be.
• Brett Dickson highlighted how incredibly important business skills are outside of academia.
• For most panelists, research is no long a part of their career, instead Benet Duncan explained that the majority of their job involves respecting and connecting the science.

After the panel we received a lot of positive feedback, with many participants asking if we planned on making this a yearly event. Although we hadn’t planned on it, I think the need is there, we just have to find the funding! To read more about this event, check out our write-up in the Aggie Brickyard on page 25, here!

​​Undergraduate Mentoring

If there is one thing I’m thankful for as an early-career scientist, it’s the amazing mentors I have had in the past. From faculty and post-docs, to other graduate students, I would not be where I am without their advice and support. For this reason I strive to be a good mentor for my undergraduate interns. Each quarter, I take on a new set of undergraduates (though some I can’t seem to get rid of!) who assist me in the lab, greenhouse, or field with my research and I like to reciprocate by helping them fine-tune their resumes and guiding there search for further opportunities. I love working with passionate undergraduates who are just discovering the nuanced complexities of ecology!
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