Gillian Bowser Ph.D. Research Scientist II Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Associate Affiliate Professor, Ethnic Studies Department, Affiliate Faculty Department of Ecosystem Services and Sustainability, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology Faculty, Colorado State University. Senior Fellow—The Mountain Institute To the Search Committee,

I am an interdisciplinary researcher with an excellent funding record rooted in diversity and inclusion in the environmental sciences. I am applying for the Open Rank Position in the Warner College with a potential home department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability (ESS), although I am willing to integrate myself into other departments as well. My strong academic record demonstrated by funding and publications, sustained involvement in endeavors to increase diversity in natural resource disciplines, and federal experience in natural resources make me an ideal candidate for this faculty position.

My professional path began with over two decades of working with policy makers and the public to study and advocate for how people engage with, use and protect natural resources in US National Parks. During my career, I have served as 1) an ecologist with the National Park Service based at 7 different parks, 2) an American Association for the Advancement of Science Diplomacy Fellow with the U.S. Department of State, 4) a Fulbright Scholar for La Molina University; 4) a consultant with UN Environment, and 5) an instructor on diversity, gender, and inclusion issues. All of my experiences inform my research on ecosystem services, sustainability, gender, and racial and ethnic representations in science.

Currently, I am a research scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory and affiliate faculty member with ESS and the Departments of Ethnic Studies (ETST). I have been in this position since 2010 with an active research program supported by over $5 million-worth of grants from national and international sources and private foundations. I advise students in the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology (GDPE) and undergraduates in ETST and ESS. I also teach graduate and undergraduate classes (online and in the classroom), and field practicums. Class topics include gender, environmental justice, pollinator ecology and citizen science. I integrate outreach with active research learning so my students work with community members and staff in city parks, national parks and protected areas throughout the western states and internationally. In short, I am an expert on diversity and inclusion in environmental studies and natural resources. Demonstrated commitment to teaching excellence: Active learning and engagement are central to my teaching philosophy and to make inclusive classrooms, I integrate topics of diversity and inclusion into discussions of sustainability and environmental resources. Student learning is often enhanced when a personal connection between the topic and the students’ own experiences can be highlighted and this is especially true for minority students. Reflecting the experiences, histories, and unique perspectives of different cultures is central to natural resource discussions in my classes. Enhancing students understanding of different cultural lens in approaches to resource protection helps build

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personal connections to resource issues. In career fields such as the environmental sciences where diversity numbers are low, bringing new voices to the classroom is critical. I use writing from diverse authors and invite professional speakers from different ethnic backgrounds. I highlight research papers that include acknowledgement of traditional knowledge; focus on issues of gender; or explore conservation through non-western European perspectives. Understanding the complex relationships among race, ethnicity, traditional knowledge, and national origins helps bring diverse perspectives to a natural resource curriculum. In my class syllabi, I use a comprehensive diversity and inclusion statement to acknowledge and welcome diverse viewpoints in my classrooms. Demonstrated research focused at intersection of natural resources and diversity/inclusion*: I currently am the lead principal investigator on several grants focused on diversity and inclusion in natural resources. One grant (NSF GEO-GOLD) focuses on faculty and administrators of field experiences and how bias and inclusion issues can arise. My second grant (NSF DBI RCN-UBE) uses citizen science to engage underrepresented students in applied research in Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks. The grant also partners with a Louis Stokes grant for minority participation (NSF LSAMP) and with Ecological Society of America’s SEEDS program. Lastly I am a co-PI on a human resource grant (NSF EHR RCN-UBE) focused on the assessment of inclusion and bias of field camps within the environmental sciences. My total grant production on diversity and inclusion in natural resources totals just under $2.5 million in 8 years with an additional $1.5 million under review or in preparation at the start of 2019. In addition, my research portfolio on pollinators, climate change in mountain ecosystem, and citizen science totals $2.5 million with two new grants being prepared for 2019. Demonstrated service/outreach focused on diversity and inclusion in natural resources: Since arriving at CSU, I present on diversity and inclusion in natural resources at university events such as the Diversity Conference and Front Range Ecology Conferences. I am also an active participant on the Warner College Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Graduate College’s mentoring programs. I manage a diversity program for underrepresented undergraduates called the Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network (RMSSN) academy. This intensive ten-day experience is funded by grants (NSF DBI RCN-UBE and NSF OCI RCN-SEES) and private foundation donations (Beacham O’Malley Charitable Trust, and a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation match). RMSSN hosts 20-25 undergraduate students each year selected from a competitive national search of over 100 applicants. Every class is 50-70% students from minority or diverse backgrounds. Our recent survey of nine alumni classes found the majority are still in environmental fields including academia, NSF graduate fellows, non-profits and government (manuscript in preparation). Commitment to future research engagement on diversity/inclusion: My current research focus is on the intersections of culture and ecology using citizen science approaches (with common or crowd-sourced databases and cell phones as data collection devices) to

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*!NSF categories: DBI- Division of Biological Infrastructure; OCI-Office of Cyber Infrastructure; LSAMP-Louis Stokes Advancing Minority Participation in Science; RCN-Research Coordination Network; UBE-Undergraduate Biology Education; EHR-Education and Human Resources; GOLD-Geosciences Leadership in Diversity; CNH-S-Coupled Natural Human; REU- Research Experience for Undergraduates.!

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engage students in the detection of ecological indicators in Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and Huscäran National Parks (US and Peru). I use invertebrates, mostly pollinators, to introduce students to field research in the Leave-No-Trace settings of national parks. Pollinators also introduce students to environmental questions in many different settings including urban spaces, and citizen science allows that basic applied research to transcend national and cultural boundaries. I use this approach in my proposals for undergraduate research (NSF-REU) and in my field practicum classes. My students in Peru (NSF CNH-S) work along side traditional pastoralists measuring bees and aquatic invertebrates and my field practicum classes work with staff from Denver City Parks and Jefferson County Extension categorizing pollinators in inner city parks. Potential to establish partnerships with organizations and agencies: My current research is a partnership (NSF CNH-S) focused on glacier retreat in the high Andes of Peru and the impacts on traditional livelihoods. The project, Andes, Bofedales and Cattle (ABC), is a five-year partnership of four institutions: Colorado State University (lead), University of Texas, Michigan Technological University, La Molina University and a non-governmental organization (The Mountain Institute). In addition, I have two research proposals (NSF-REU) under consideration focused on diversity and undergraduate students that include partnerships with Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks and The Denver Museum of Natural History. I partner with Denver City Parks, Jefferson County Extension, Bureau of Land Management, for summer internship projects on pollinators for my students. I also partner with several universities on exchange projects including University of Derby (UK), La Molina University (Peru), and host students from University of Dijon (France) each year on pollinator projects.

As a woman of color who is also a scientist, my own life experiences as a minority in natural resources have influenced my research and teaching lenses. It has also fueled my life-long commitment to better understand how diverse community members engage with the environment and be valued by the larger body of natural resource scientists. I am proud of my ability to be opportunistic while staying grounded in my human-environment interactions research. When I left a federal position to enter the world of academia, I discovered that there is much work to be done to truly integrate diverse voices in all of the sciences, but particularly environmental sciences. Furthermore, as our country’s demographics continue to change, it becomes even more pressing for universities and agencies to recognize the need for scholarship in diversity in natural resource and environmental sciences. I welcome the chance to contribute to WCNR’s commitment to this important area of scholarship. Sincerely,!

Gillian Bowser, PhD Research Scientist II

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Gillian Bowser, Ph.D. Research Scientist II Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado 80523

EDUCATION 1998 Ph.D., Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO. Population genetics

of prairie dogs of Badlands National Park, SD. 1988 M.Sc., Zoology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT. Community Ecology of

Lepidoptera of Yellowstone National Park, WY. 1982 B.S., Biology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Minor in Art and illustration. ACADEMIC POSITIONS 2017-2018 Visiting Professor-Clark University International Development, Community and

Environment. Worcester, MA. 2013- Associate Faculty, Department of Ethnic Studies, Colorado State University, CO. 2013 - Affiliate Faculty, Department of Ecosystem Sustainability and Science, Colorado

State University, CO. 2010 - Research Scientist II, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State

University, Fort Collins, CO. 2008-2010 Assistant Dean, Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University,

Fort Collins, CO. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES 2016 Consultant-ORC Consultancy service—Environmental Impact Statement review. 2016 - Senior Scholar, The Mountain Institute, Washington DC and Huaràz, Peru. 2015 - Stakeholder representative: High Level Group-Global Environmental Outlook

(GEO6), United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). 2015 - 2016 Global Gender Environmental Outlook (GGEO6) contributing author. United

Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). 2011 – 2012 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and

Diplomacy Fellow U.S. Department of State, Office of Marine Conservation, Washington DC.

2003 – 2008 Research Coordinator, Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, National Park Service, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.

2002 - 2003 Assistant Chief of Resources, National Park Service, Wrangell St Elias National Park, AK.

2000 - 2002 Special Assistant to the Director of the National Park Service, Washington, DC. 1984 - 1999 Ecologist and Wildlife Biologist, National Park Service (Yellowstone, WY;

Joshua Tree, CA and Badlands National Parks, SD). HONORS & AWARDS

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2017 Ecological Society of America Commitment to Human Diversity in Ecology Award

2016 Women of Influence Award, Colorado Women of Influence 2014 J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship (Rangeland Sciences Laboratory, La

Molina University, Lima, Peru) 2013 Graduate Faculty for Diversity, Graduate School, Colorado State University Margaret B. Hazeleus Award for scholarship on women and girls. Colorado State

University 2010-16 AGEP Faculty Member, Graduate School, Colorado State University 2009 Office of Undergraduate Artistry and Research Award for Outstanding Service to

Undergraduate Research, Colorado State University 2009 Service Learning Scholar, The Institute for Teaching and Learning (TILT) 2008 Service Award, Southeast Region, National Park Service 2008 Citizen Science Award, National Park Service 2007 Selected Fellow Linnean Society of London 2006 Albright Fellowship for Professional Advancement National Park Service 2005 Rails to Trails Leadership Award, National Park Service 2005 National CESU Award for best Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit 2000 National Park Foundation National Awards for Old Stories, New Voices Youth

Camp 1997 On-The-Spot Award for National Park Service employee performance: Old

Stories, New Voices Youth Camp EXTERNALLY FUNDED GRANTS Total $5,723,591 awarded from 2010-2018 2018 H2020/MSCA/RISE programme-European Union. Tourran, Jean Francois, …,

Bowser, G. The Highlands: A consortium of thirty principal organizations in Europe, East Africa, Asia and the Americas. 2.3 million Euros. € 2,300,000 (=$2,632,000 USD) to CIRAD, France.

2017 National Science Foundation. O’Connell, K., Berkowitz, A. R., Billick, I., Bowser, G. & Branchaw, J. Building capacity for evidence-based undergraduate field experiences. $499,620.

2017 National Science Foundation. Pagnac, D., Bowser, G., Munez, A., Possett, J., & Hubbard, M. Collaborative Proposal: FIELD: Fieldwork Inspiring Expanding Leadership & Diversity. $300,000.

2016 National Park Service. Moore, J.C. & Bowser G. Pollinator Hotshot Workshop. North Cascades National Parks Cluster. $35,000.

2016 National Science Foundation. Bowser, G., Recharte, J., Boone, R., Chimner, R. & Young, K. CNH-S: Andes, Bofedales and Cattles: Coupled Natural Human Ecosystems in the High Andes of Peru. $499,000.

2016 National Science Foundation. Bowser, G., Moore, J.C., Monfils, A., Mourad, T., Hilgert, U., & Husic, D. Research Coordination Network in Undergraduate Biology Education: 3dNaturalist: Engaging Underrepresented minority students in Citizen Science. $499,000.

2016 National Science Foundation Bowser, G. & Moore, J.C. 3dNaturalists Workshop: National Park Service Centennial Bioblitz and data analysis. $49,990

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2014 National Science Foundation. Klein, J, Baron, J, Wallenstein, W, & Bowser, G. CNH-RCN: Bridging communities and scales through a trans-disciplinary mountain sustainability network. $499,981

2013 USAID-PEER. Dajani, R., & Bowser G. Three Circles of Alemat. Mentoring Multicultural Women in Science. Jordon Research Society. $249,000

2010 National Science Foundation, Research Coordinated Network in Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN-UBE) Bowser, G. & Brown, M.A. Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network (RMSSN). $599,000

2010 The Beacham O’Malley Foundation. Bowser, G. & Brown, M.A. Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network. $72,000.

PUBLICATIONS *=student author, #diversity related Peer Reviewed Articles (13/32 = 40% are diversity related) 2018

UNE (2019). Sixth Global Environmental Outlook. Multiple Authors (Bowser, G. contributor on gender and biodiversity). UN Environment. United Nations Publication 1000 pages.

UNE (2019). Summary for Policy Makers. Sixth Global Environmental Outlook. High Level Group (Bowser, G. contributor on gender and biodiversity). UN Environment document. United Nations Publications. 25 pages.

#Husic, D, Bowser, G. & Whipple, S. (2018). Attracting and engaging diverse students in field-based research and environmental studies.!SPUR: Scholarship and Practice of Undergraduate Research (In review).

#Shinbrot, X., Gretzel, U., Bowser, G. & Wilkins, K. (2018). Women leadership in Sustainability. World Development. (In revision).

Stoepler, T. M. & Bowser, G. (2018). Careers in science diplomacy and international policy. Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment, 16(2),118–119, https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1773

2017 Wilkins*, K., Bowser, G. & Moore, J. (2017). Effects of Birdwatchers on Sandhill Crane

Behavior at a Birding Festival in Southwestern Colorado. Southwestern Naturalist, 62(4), 263-269.

Klemow, K., Bowser, G., Cid, C., Middendorf, G., Mourad, T., Herrick, J., (2017). Exploring Ecological Careers – a new Frontiers series. Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment 15(6), 336–337, doi:10.1002/fee.1508.

UNEP (2017). Global Gender Environmental Outlook. Multiple authors (Bowser, contributing author on ecological indicators and trends). United Nations Publication 400 pages.

2016 UNEP (2016). Global Environmental Outlook Pacific Asia Regional Assessment. Multiple

Authors (Bowser, contributing High level Group (HLG) stakeholder on policy and biodiversity). United Nations Publication 250 pages.

Diaz Eaton, C., Allen, D., Anderson, L.A., Bowser, G, Pauley, M.A., Williams, K.S. & Uno, G. E. (2016). Summit of the Research Coordination Networks for Undergraduate Biology Education. CBE Life Science Education, 15:mr1; doi:10.1187/cbe.16-03-0147

Wilkins*, K., Bowser, G. & Moore J.C. (2016). Celebrating single species migrations: 30 year-old birding festival in Colorado as a model for the conservation of the sandhill crane. Park Science. Spring, 2016.

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2015 #Cid, C. & Bowser, G. (2015). Breaking down barriers to diversity in ecology. Frontiers in

Ecology and the Environment, May, 13(4), page 179. Garza, S. J., Wilson, K. R., & Bowser, G. (2015). Removal of artesian wells in Great Sand

Dunes National Park and its aftermath on small mammals, plant cover, and area disturbance by ungulates. Park Science, 32, 57-64.

2014

#Bowser, G., Gretzel, U., Davis, E.B. & Brown, M.A. (2014). Educating the future of sustainability. Sustainability, 6(2), 692-701. DOI:10.3390/su60x000x

Garza*, S. J., Bowser, G., & Wilson, K. R. (2014). Plant community changes following closure of artesian wells in Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado. Western North American Naturalist, 335-342.

#Gretzel, U., Davis, E. B., Bowser, G., Jiang*, J. & Brown, M.A. (2014). Creating Global Leaders with sustainability mindsets—reflections from the RMSSN Summer Academy. Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism, 14(2),164-183. DOI: 10.1080/15313220.2014.907958

2013

#Gretzel, U. & G. Bowser (2013). Real Stories about Real Women: communicating role models for female tourism students. In The Tourism Education Futures Initiative: Achieving Change in Tourism Education. D. Prebežac, Schott, C. & Sheldon, P. editors. Routledge Taylor and Francis. 396 pages. ISBN 978—0-415-84416-1

Garza*, S. J., Bowser, G., & Wilson, K. R. (2013) Plant community changes following closure of artesian well sites in Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado Western North American Naturalist, 74(3), 335-342.

#Brunswig, R., G. Junne, G., Bowser, G., Renfrew, E., Dickmann, E., Purnell, A. & Brown, M. A. (2013). Dearfield Dream project: developing an interdisciplinary historical/cultural research network. Social Science, 2(3), 168-179.

#Bowser, G. (2013). Invisibility in fisheries: the complex role of women in fisheries and aquaculture. In Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (Ed.) Sustainable Management of Marine Resources. Noumea, New Caledonia ISBN 978-981-6334-3.

#Bowser, G., Quick Bear* E., Purnell A, & Brown M. A. (2013). Veterinary Science: A Model Discipline for Enhancing Diversity in the Sciences. Journal of Veterinary Science and Medicine. 1(1), 40 – 45.

2012

Knodle*, R., Bowser, G, & Brown M. A. (2012). Should Science be Silenced? International Journal of Sciences, 11(1).

#Gretzel, U., Bowser, G. & Mann, T. (2012). Real stories about real women: Communicating role models for female students. In Schott, C. and Fesenmaier, M. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th Annual Tourism Education Futures Conference, Milan, Italy, June 28-30, 2012, Pages 111-119. Milan, Italy: Bocconi University.

#Bowser, G., Roberts, N. S., Simmons, D. R. & Perales, M. K. (2012). The Color of Climate: Ecology, environment, climate change and women of color-exploring environmental leadership from the perspective of women of color in science. In D. R. Gallaher (Ed.)

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Environmental Leadership in Practice: A Reference Handbook. Volume 1 (pp. 60–67). Sage Publications.

#Davis, E., Bowser, G. & Brown, M. A. (2012). The Global Mindset: engaging multicultural students in multidimensional learning. In D. R. Gallaher (Ed.) Environmental Leadership in Practice: A Reference Handbook. Volume 2 (pp. 891–899). Sage Publications.

1988-2011

Chavarria*, P. M., Lopez, R. R., Bowser, G., & Silvy, N. (2007). Landscape-level Surveys of Feral Hogs in Big Thicket National Preserve, Human-Wildlife Conflicts 1 (2): 199 - 204.

Bowser, G. (2006). Identifying Careers in Biology: A personal perspective. Southeastern Biology 53(3) 359-361.

Schuett, M.A, Fannin, D., Lu*, J. & Bowser, G. (2007). The Wildland Urban Interface and the National Forests of East Texas. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration. 25(4) 6 -24.

#Schuett, M. A. & Bowser, G. (2006). Managers’ Perceptions of issues in serving racial and ethnic minorities in urban parks. The George Wright Society Forum, 23(4) 40-48.

#Lopez, R. R., Lopez, A., Wilkins, R. N., Torres, C. Valdez, R., Teer, J. G. & Bowser, G. (2005). Changing Hispanic demographics: challenges in natural resource management. Wildlife Society Bulletin 33(2): 553.

Lovich, J., Medica, P., Avery, H., Meyer, K. Bowser, G., & Brown, A. (1999). Studies of reproductive output of the desert tortoise at Joshua Tree National Park, the Mojave National Preserve, and comparative sites. Park Science 19(1) 22-25.

Delguidice, G., Seal, U. & Bowser, G. (1994). Physiological responses of Yellowstone Bison to Winter Nutritional Deprivation. Journal of Wildlife Management, 58(1) 24 – 34.

Bowser, G. 1(989). The assessment of winter ungulate condition through behavioral and condition analysis in Yellowstone National Park. American Zoologist 29(4) A4

Bowser, G. (1988). Winter foraging behavior in bison (Bison bison) in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. American Zoologist 28(4) A156.

Science Blogs and commentaries Bowser, G. & Gilmore, E. (2018). Speaking Fijian and a guide to Talonoa: Negotiating science

and policy at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Sci on the Fly. Blog for the S&T Policy Fellows, AAAS. https://www.aaaspolicyfellowships.org/blog/speaking-fijian-and-guide-talanoa-cop23

Bowser, G. (2017). Citizen Science and the Convention of Biological Diversity. Radio show How On Earth KGNU Boulder Public Radio weekly science show with Susan Moran http://howonearthradio.org/archives/5728

Bowser, G. & Husic, D. (2016). Ringo at COP21? The Paris Agreement and research independent non government organizations. Sci on the Fly. Blog for the S&T Policy Fellows, AAAS. http://aaaspolicyfellowships.org/sci-fly/ringo-cop21

Bowser, G. (2015). Ambition, Transparency and Differentiation: Women at the COP21. Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gillian-bowser/ambition-transparency-and_b_8821966.html.

Book Reviews

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Bowser, G. (2017). American Wolf, Science 08 September 2017 Vol. 357 Issue 6355 pp. 966. DOI: 10.1126/science.aah4996

Bowser, G. (2016). Citizen Science. Science 09 Sep 2016: Vol. 353, Issue 6304, pp. 1088-1093 DOI: 10.1126/science.aah4996

Editorship, conference proceedings, student posters and commentaries Le Mat*, A., Bowser, G., & Hewitt, J. (2017). GoPollinators: Detecting pollinator interactions

with GoPro cameras. Poster presentation. Ecological Society of America, Portland, OR. Whipple, S.*, Bowser, G., Choi, K.*, Takata-Glushkoff, P.*, & Hopkins P. (2017). Engaging

students in citizen science and biodiversity research. Poster presentation to Ecological Society of America, Portland, OR.

#Gretzel, U., Davis, E. B., Bowser, G., Jiang, J., & Brown, M. (2013, April). Creating Global Leaders with Sustainability Mindsets–Reflections from the RMSSN Summer Academy. In Tourism Education Futures Initiative 7 the Annual Conference (p. 57).

#Bowser, G. (2011). Interview on experiences of minority wildlife biologists. Wildlife Society Bulletin Spring 2011.

#Bowser, G., Maclaughlin*, S. & Brown, M.A. (2011). The student experience at the Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network (RMSSN) Summer Academy. Proceedings of The 2011 George Wright Society Conference on Parks, Protected Areas and Cultural Sites, New Orleans, LA.

Kang, JungEun*, Bowser, G., & Kyle, G. (2007). Storm Impacts on National Park Visitation. ESRI User Conference Abstracts, June 2007.

#Bowser, G. (2006). Special Edition: Environmental Justice and National Parks. Guest Editorship. The Forum of the George Wright Society for Research in Protected Areas, 23(4).

Chaverria*, P. M., R. R. Lopez, R. R, Bowser, G. & Silvy, N. J. (2006). An Assessment of White- tailed deer (Odocolileus virginiunus) and feral hogs (Sus scrofia) populations at Big Thicket National Park. Proceedings of the 2005 George Wright Society Conference on Parks, Protected Areas and Cultural Sites, Philadelphia, PA.

Chaverria*, P. M., G. Bowser & Lopez, R. R. (2005). Feral Hog Population Status in Big Thicket National Preserve. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

Bowser, G. (2005). Student Internships in National Parks. Natural Resources Year in Review. National Park Service publication, 55 pages.

#Bowser, G. (2000). Flat Hats and Dredlocks: Minorities in the National Park Service. Pick Up and Go. Fall, 2000.

Bowser, G., K. Meyers and B. Long, (2000). Tortoise Landscapes: Mapping distributions of the endangered desert tortoise. ESRI Conference Proceedings.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE Clark University Freshman introductory class

•!Environmental Policy, Conservation and International Development EN101. 3 credits, 50 students

Capstone Senior seminar •!International Development and Science Policy Capstone EN290. 2 credits 10 students

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Graduate Seminar classes •!Applied Ecology. 3 credits 13 students •!Ecosystem Services (advanced reading group) 2 credits 3 students •!Sustainable Fisheries 8 students. 2 credits 8 students

Colorado State University Capstone and senior level classes •! Global Perspectives on Sustainability ESS400 3 credits 60-90 students. •! Foundations of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability ESS400. 3 credits; 60-90 students. •! Field Practicum ESS486 1-2 credits 25 students (in the field for one or two weeks). •! Capstone Ecosystem Science and Sustainability ESS440 (co-taught) 4 credits; 30 students •! Women and Sustainability WS380 3 credits 15 students. •! Women and Sustainability (Special Section), Women’s Studies and Research Center-10

students. Graduate level classes •! International Environmental Policy ECOL592 Special Seminar Series, Fall 2018. 8

students and co-Taught with Dr. E. Gilmore, Clark University. 2 credits 10 students •! Science and Policy ECOL592 Special Seminar Series, 2 credits 10 students. •! Graduate Research Independent Research HIS695, ECOL695 (number of credits varies

with each student). •! Ecology, Equity and African Diaspora. Graduate seminar NR595. 2 credits 10 Students.

Undergraduate entry level classes •! SUPER Mentor (1 – 2 students per year): Undergraduate research experience in

Sustainability (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017) credits vary by student. •! Live Green: Freshmen Seminar in Sustainability (NR192/AGRI193) Fall 2009, Spring

2010. 2 credits 20 students. •! Pilot Seminar in Sustainability. NR192, no credit service class 20 students. •! Student undergraduate research experiences and Honors (ESS492). 1-3 credits 4 students.

CSU Online •!Environmental Justice (ETST365). Ethnic Studies and Women’s Studies ES380. 3 credits

Online cap 50 students. Non-credit undergraduate workshop and academy classes (students from different institutions)

•!3dNaturalists: student training on bioblitzes and citizen science databases (30 students), CSU Mountain Campus (2016).

•!Digital Ambassadors: Bioblitz and citizen science training (2014-2016). Golden Gate and Hawaii Volcanoes National Parks. 30 students from multiple universities.

•!Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network (RMSSN) summer academy (2009 to present). 25 students at ten-day intensive academy at Yellowstone and Grand Tetons National Parks.

•!Pollinator Hotshot team. Citizen Science training (2015-present). 15 students. International student interns

•!Pollinators and Citizen Science (3 student interns from France). •!Minority Participation in environmentally themed activities, Hawaii Volcanoes, Grand

Tetons, Yellowstone National Parks (student interns from The Netherlands and Peru).

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•!Pollinator Hotshot Team at Bandelier and Yellowstone National Parks (student interns from France and Brazil).

Texas A&M University •! Parks and Protected Areas Management (co-taught). Texas A&M University RPTS490 4

credits 30 students •! Environment Justice Seminar (co-taught) Texas A&M University. 3 credits 10 students •! Guest lecturer (Fundamentals of Wildlife Ecology, Introduction to Wildlife Management,

Parks and Protected Areas), Texas A&M University. •! Multiple Institutions and the National Park Service Park Break! Graduate student seminars

during spring break at different national parks (Acadia, Gateway, Indiana Dunes, Delaware Water Gap, Great Sand Dunes). Service learning –no credits 10-15 students per session.

GRADUATE STUDENTS *co-chair or committee member; #minority or member of underrepresented group. Masters Students Mai Awad, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University (expected

graduation May 2019). Sarah Whipple, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University (expected

graduation May 2020) *Digby Kalert, Environmental Policy and Community Development. Clark University (expected

graduation 2018) *#Jordan Allen, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, Graduated

August 2016. *#Sarah Garza, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University and USGS

SCEP appointee. Graduated August 2013. Current Ph.D. University of Auckland, New Zealand.

#Kate Wilkins, MSc. Graduated December 2013. Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University. Ph.D. 2018 Current Post Doctoral researcher, Colorado State University

Glory Sumay, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University. Graduated August 2013. Current: Wildlife Biologist, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

*#Stephanie Guerra, History, Colorado State University, Graduated 2010. *Kate Eccles, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University, Graduated

2009. PhD Students *Phillip Halliwell, Ph.D. Prescott College. Expected graduation December 2019. *Melody Zarria, Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, Colorado State University, and Fulbright

Scholar. Expected graduation May, 2022. *#Nicole Smolensky, 2008. Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University. Graduated

Ph.D.2012. *#Pedro M. Chavarria MSc. 2009, PhD. 2012. Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M

University. Current: Lecturer, Blinn College, College Station, Texas. *Michelle Kung, Ph.D. (2010). Recreation, Parks and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M

University. Current: Assistant Professor University of Taiwan.

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*#Lavell Merritt Ph.D. (2009). Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University. Current: Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University and National Park Service Coordinator.

International Interns Ester Bourdon, MSc. University of Dijon, France Anne Le Mat, MSc. University of Dijon, France Lucie Royer, MSc. University of Dijon, France Djulia Alverado, BS. University of Sao Paulo, Brazil Rachel Lauwerjssen MSc. Urecht University, The Netherlands. Now Ph.D. student, University of

Leeds. Melody Zarria, MSc. La Molina University, Lima, Peru (now Ph.D. student, Colorado State

University) Post Doctoral Associate Dr. Molly Polk, University of Texas, Austin (2016-2017). Undergraduate Honors Thesis students Sarah Whipple- Citizen Science 2018 Allison Robinson—Women and Water 2016 SELECTED PRESENTATIONS #focus on engaging underrepresented groups in natural resources International Venue, The United Nations and governmental organizations Students Researching and Advocating for Climate Change. U.N Official Side Event, UN

Framework Convention on Climate Change, Katowice, Poland 2018 (student led presentation).

.#Citizen Science in the Eastern Caribbean. U.S. State Department Speaker Series program. Workshops on citizen science approaches in St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Dominica.

Mountains as Learning Landscapes. International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Honolulu, HI.

Mountain Partnerships in Sustainability (2015). Conference of the Parties (COP) 21, Paris, France.

#Women in Science (2015): panel moderator and workshop lead with CRDF, University of Qatar and Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar.

#Gender and ecological indicators (2015). Gender Global Environmental Outlook, Bonn, Germany.

#Understanding perception and motivation in sustainability (2015). Oxford Round Table. Oxford University, England.

#Educating Youth on Sustainability (2104). Youth education stream, International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Sydney, Australia.

Mountains as informal learning (2014). Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI), Oxford University, Oxford, England.

#Understanding the importance of cohorts in underrepresented minority retention in the sciences (2014). Round table organizer and lead, Yale Climate Change Conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT.

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#Panelist and workshop organizer (2013), Global Diaspora Network, U.S. Department of State, Washington DC.

#Women in Sustainability (2012). International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) annual meeting, Jeju, Korea.

Sustainability and networks: A workshop in network analysis (2012). Northwestern University, Qatar, Doha, Qatar.

Communicating Sustainability-panel moderator (2012). United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development Official Side Event in US Pavilion. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil June.

#Women and Climate Change. (2010). UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP16) Side Event and workshop. Cancun, Mexico.

#USAID-Higher Education Development, African Drylands Center. Accra, Ghana, (2009). Gordon Research Conferences #Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network: Mountains as learning landscapes (2015).

Gordon Conference on Undergraduate Biology Education, Lewiston, MA. A Tale of Two Networks: Innovative knowledge networks in sustainability (2012). Gordon

Research Conference on Science and Technology, Water Valley, NH. Professional conferences #Bowser, G. (2018). Engaging underrepresented students in science using citizen science.

Panel presentation at the Biannual Yellowstone Conference, Big Sky, MT. #Whipple, S.*, Bowser, G., Choi, K.*, Takata-Glushkoff, P.*, & Hopkins P. (2017). Engaging

students in citizen science and biodiversity research. Poster presentation to Ecological Society of America, 2017. Portland, OR.

Le Mat*, A., Bowser, G., & Hewitt, J. (2017). GoPollinators: Detecting pollinator interactions with GoPro cameras. Poster presentation. Ecological Society of America, Portland, 2017.

#Bowser, G., (2016). Broadening Participation in Ecology. Ecological Society of America, Fort Lauderdale, FL.

Mountains as Learning Landscapes (2015). Society for Human Ecology, Santa Barbara, CA. Ecology Across Borders: Panel discussion on international ecology (2013). Organizer and

presenter, Ecological Society of America, Minneapolis, MN. #Women and the STEM Diaspora (2013). American Association for the Advancement of

Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting, Boston, MA. A Tale of Two Networks: Rio de Janeiro, Sustainability and Women (2013). Contributed

Symposium, American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.

#Green Collars and Green Place (2009): Workshop leader. National Council on Science and the Environment, Washington DC.

#Women and Minorities in Science, Scientific Careers (2006). Association of Southeast Biologist, Gatlinburg, TN.

Invited presentations and seminars Ecological indicators and citizen science (2016). Western Washington State University,

Bellingham, WA. #Citizen science and broadening participation in ecology (2016). Ohio State University,

Columbus, OH.

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#National Park Service Centennial and Minority Participation (2016), Virtual Presentation, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

#Through a dark lens: Women, minorities in the ecological sciences (2015). Graduate Women in Science, Colorado State University, CO.

Ecological Indicators in high mountain environments (2015). Oregon State University, Eugene, OR.

#Three Circles of Alemat (2015). Presentation and workshop, Jordan Scientific Society and University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.

Women leadership in sustainability (2014). University of London, London, England. Science and policy at U.S. Department of State (2013). R.I.S.E. Presentation, Hunter College,

New York, NY. #Global Women Scholars Network (2011). Presentation to school of Business and Technology,

University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia. Marine Conservation and the U.S. Department of State (2012). Hampton University, Hampton,

VA. Rio+20 Outcomes and Consequences. Public panel presentation (2012). City of Aspen, CO. #Climate Change and Diversity Communities (2010). Climate workshops (panelist and

moderator), Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL. #Changing Demographics in Natural Resource Fields, (2006). University of Missouri-Columbia. #Ecology and Environment (2008), Spelman College, Atlanta, GA. #Citizen Scientists and Engaging the Public (2007). University of Illinois, Chicago, IL. Government and professional institutions Copenhagen Reflections (2010). Panel discussion on COP15, Boulder, CO. Invited Participant: AAAS Sustainability Working Group (2008, 2009), Washington DC. All Taxa Biodiversity Inventories in National Parks (2007). Mercer Arboretum, Houston, TX. #Changing Demography and U.S. National Parks (2007). National Park Foundation Second

Century Parks Commission, Austin, TX. First Lady Laura Bush, Chair. #Minorities in Recreation Fields (2006). Washington State Parks Workshop, Seattle, WA. #Demographics of National Parks of the Northeast, (2006). National Park Service Northeast Region Superintendents Conference, Washington, DC. Alumni Women in the Sciences (2005). Colorado State University Women in Science series,

Fort Collins, CO. From Acadia to Zion: Science and the National Parks (2005). Boston Museum of Science (one

session for high school students and one for the general public) Boston, MA. Thicket of Diversity: Big Thicket Institute on Biological Diversity (2007, 2008). Eastfield

College, Dallas, TX. Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (2000). Washington DC. PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Departmental/Laboratory Informal African Research working group Representative on diversity and inclusion task force in College. College

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Representative to Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, Warner College of Natural Resource, Colorado State University (2016-2019).

Presidential Committee on Diversity (co-served with academic advisor) University Graduate AGEP faculty and mentor (Achieving Graduate Education for the Professoriate) Multiethnic Faculty and Staff Board, Colorado State University (2017-2019), nominated Faculty and Administration Diversity Task Force. Colorado State University (2013 -2015) Diversity Task Force Member, Colorado State University (2009) Graduate School board on Diversity and Access, Colorado State University (2009) Sustainability in higher education climate action plan, Colorado State University (2009) Secretary of the Black Faculty Association. Texas A&M University (2006 - 2008) Professional Community Ecological Society of America Governing Board, Member-at-Large (2017-2019). Applied Ecology Section Chair, Ecological Society of America (2010-2016) Senior Fellow, The Mountain Institute (2016 to present). Fulbright Specialist, La Molina University, Lima Peru (2014). International and Domestic Treaties and Consultancies United Nations Environmental Program-Gender consultant and author (2015, 2016) High Level Expert Group and U.S. Delegate (2015-2019). Global Environmental Outlook

(GEO6). United Nations Environmental Program, Nairobi, Kenya. Women’s Major Group. U.N. Stakeholder and Civil Society representative, UN Post2015

working group, New York, NY. The Mountain Institute: Consultancy and panel preparation partnership, Paris France (2015) Diverse Environmental Leaders Network (2014 to present) North Pacific Fisheries Commission, U.S. Delegation member, Juneau, AK (2012) Asian Pacific Economic Council (APEC), U.S. Delegation Ocean and Fisheries Working group,

Kazan, Russia (2012). Sinal do Vale—Global Ecoreserve. Zeist Foundation, San Antonio, Brazil (2013) Center for Park Management – Diversity and national parks (2012, 2013) Women and fisheries. U.S. Delegate to the Pacific Economic Council. Noumea, New Caledonia,

(2011). Women and Science Public Delegate for the United States to the 55th UN Commission on the

Status of Women. Delegate to U.S. Ambassador M. Vermeer, Global Women’s Issues, U.S. Department of State, New York City, New York (2011).

Park Break! A project to engage diverse graduate students with the management and science for U.S. National Parks (2000 – 2010)

George Melendez Wright Minority Student Travel Scholarship administrator (2000 – 2010) Civil Society Delegate, Research and Industry Non-Governmental Organization, UN Framework

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP15-22), multiple locations (2009 –present). National Park Service Second Century Commission, National Parks and Conservation

Association, Knoxville, TN (2009). Absaroka Search Dogs handler (1985 – 1992), Yellowstone, WY. Dakota Search and Rescue (1992-1995), Rapid City, SD.

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Wildland Fire Incident Command Team—remote sensing (1988-1989), Yellowstone WY. Wildland Fire -Red Card and Incident Command System certification. (1981-1990), Yellowstone, WY. Board Membership Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network Board (2012-present) Member at Large. Ecological Society of America Governing Board (2017-2019) Nonprofit Executive Director, Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network Academy

501c2 status with State of Colorado (2013 – current) Chair, Applied Ecology Ecological Society of America (2012 – 2015) Colorado Leadership in Business Arts Fellow (2011) Vice President, Thicket of Diversity, Big Thicket National Preserve, Texas (2007) Discover Life in America Board Member, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

(2000 - 2009) George Wright Society Board Member, Chair of Student Development Committee and life

member (2002 - 2008) Absaroka Search and Rescue Dogs- board member (1990-1992) Search and Rescue dog handler. Yellowstone National Park and Badlands National Park Wilderness Search and Rescue team (1985-1990) Reviewing Book reviewer—Science Magazine Reviewer; Ecosystems Scholars—High School textbook Reviewer American Association of University Women Reviewer and poster judge American Association for Advancement of Science. Section officer, Ecological Society of America Reader, Science and Diplomacy Fellowship Program, American Association for Advance of

Science Reviewer and panelist, National Science Foundation Reviewer and Section officer, Ecological Society of America Speaker Pool, U.S. State Department Judge, Environment Protection Agency P3 awards, Washington DC (2009) Council Member Council of Environmental Deans and Directors Executive Committee (2008 – 2010). Executive Council, Rocky Mountains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Missoula, Montana

(2008 – 2010). Science Technical Advisory Council, Gulf Coast Inventory and Monitoring Network, Lafayette,

Louisiana (2005 – 2008). Creative Activities Northern Colorado Pottery Guild (ceramic and sculpture artist exhibitions and sales) Kobuk Clay works, Ceramic sculpture professional solo and group shows and art fairs (Texas

and Colorado). PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP

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American Association for the Advancement of Science Ecological Society of America George Wright Society for Parks and Protected Area (Life member) Coalition of National Park Service Retirees. TRAINING AND SPECIAL SKILLS Human Subjects and Ethics: Institutional Review Board (current certificate) Care of Animal Subjects (current certificate) Foreign Assistance, Development Aid, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State,

Washington DC (2012) Multilateral Negotiations, Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State (2012) Multi-Developmental Banks and International Finance, Foreign Service Institute, U.S.

Department of State Washington DC (2012) Strategic Planning, U.S. National Park Service, Washington, DC (2007) NEPA and EIS training, U.S. National Park Service, (2005) Risk Communication, U.S. Coast Guard, Savannah, Georgia (2000) Biological Inventory and Monitoring, Smithsonian Institute, Front Royal, Virginia (May-June

2000) Aspen Institute Executive Leadership Seminar, Anchorage, Alaska (2000) Women’s Executive Leadership Program Anchorage, Alaska and Washington DC (August 1999-

August 2000). Incident Command System, Yellowstone National Park 1985-1990 Snow Rescue and Avalanche Training (1985-1990) Wilderness First Aid (1989, 1990)

Gillian Bowser Teaching statement Engaging learners in guided inquiry, hands-on activities, and critical thinking about real-

world problems have always been a central part of my approach to teaching. I use my experience on global ecological questions to design my undergraduate and graduate classes on multidisciplinary issues. All of my classes incorporate a philosophy of science for a public good where communicating science to a multicultural public is a principle theme. This gives the students a good understanding of the future for environmental research careers in applied ecology or natural resource management. In addition, to ensure all students feel included in the classroom and on team activities, my class syllabi include diversity and inclusion statements highlighting both the importance of diverse voices in the classroom, but also the perspective that diverse worldviews contribute to the value and management of natural resources.

I teach courses in Ethnic Studies (Women and Sustainability ETST265 and a new online course Environmental Justice ETST365); Ecosystem Science and Sustainability--Global Perspectives in Environmental Policy (ESS400), Field practicum (ESS486); and in the Graduate Degree Program of Ecology—GDPE (International Environmental Policy, Pollinator Decline and Women and Sustainability. All ECOL592 seminars). In my previous position at Texas A&M University as a federal researcher, I co-taught classes on Environmental Justice, and Parks and Protected Area Management, in the Recreation, Parks and Tourism Sciences department. In short, I have taught a wide range of courses, from undergraduate to graduate, from in-person to online, from life sciences to humanities, from didactic to field-based; however, all of my courses center on interdisciplinary issues across human-environment interactions.

My undergraduate classes are designed with the philosophy of active team learning. In my field practicum undergraduate class (ESS486), theory-to-practice learning focuses on having the students first address an applied ecological question from the perspective of a Park Manager. The student teams design and implement short field studies using available equipment and “leaving no trace” on a protected area landscape. The focus on real world questions that managers have to address within the national parks, helps students think about science questions and methods in the field context. In addition, this exposes them to field methods, critical thinking skills, basic data analysis and then communicating those results to a public audience.

For my senior undergraduate class in Global Environmental Policy (ESS400), the focus is on international policy and understanding how different countries negotiate on environmental policies. For this class I use real-time negotiations from the UN system including The Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), International Union on the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and similar bodies. Students are in teams assigned to specific countries and their task throughout the semester is to focus on their assigned countries cultural perspective and diplomatic position on different ecological issues. Since the students are following real time UN negotiations, their assigned projects include the incorporation of actual text from their country’s negotiators so they learn to balance differing positions between developed and developing countries or western centric viewpoints. Lastly the students have to “present” their research using a creative approach that speaks to their assigned country’s population (and corresponding education levels). These creative assignments can be personally awarding especially for multicultural students as they can use social media, cultural myths and folklore that may be reflective of their own cultures. One popular approach in the class has been developing “new” stories and children’s books to explain the importance of ecological indicators and changing climate conditions. Using a cultural narrative to explain an ecological issue helps

the students learn science can be interpreted through various cultural lens and why such cultural context matters for international environmental agreements.

My research interests include the impact of field experiences on minority student engagement in informal settings outside of the classroom. In 2009, I established the Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network (RMSSN) academy as a field experience for environmental science majors. RMSSN is a multi-institutional non-credit experience for students from different institutions and from multiple cultural backgrounds. During the two weeks of RMSSN 25 student participants are divided into three teams each with a faculty member lead. These teams, People, Pikas and Pollinators, are a deliberate mix of invertebrates, vertebrates and people so each team is addressing different field techniques and management questions. The teams are tasked to design a research question, develop testable hypotheses and then collect and analyze field data. To ensure that the RMSSN class is >70% diverse, I partner each year with CO-WYO AMP- a Louis Stokes (LSAMP) grant for engaging minority students in STEM. Many graduates from our program have gone into environmental careers including graduate school (two have NSF graduate fellowships), environmental NGOS, teaching positions or the federal government (Diaz Eaton, Allen, Anderson, Bowser, Pauley, Williams &Uno 2016; Husic, Bowser & Whipple—manuscript in preparation).

My graduate seminar classes focus on current issues in environmental policies to introduce students to environmental policies within and beyond national boundaries. In my seminar classes, I use real-time negotiation documents to explore environmental issues. For example, my graduate class on international policy is based on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and students designed a position based on their own research and classes. These students also had the opportunity to present their research at the international meeting of the UN in Katowice, Poland to an audience of country negotiators and professionals. As graduate students, the experience of seeing how research informs policy provided a critical lens to their own potential career paths in global environmental policy as academic researchers or government policy makers.

I am particularly interested in developing a minor in diversity and inclusion in natural resources. Students in the current curriculum for ESS can take classes in other departments (I had several ESS students in my Ethnic Studies Environmental Justice classes); however, to fully integrate interdisciplinary learning, I believe a minor associated with natural resources is important. Climate shifts moves organisms to new locations and ecological shifts also cross international boundaries. A minor focused on diverse cultural and social issues including environmental justice and human rights will explore natural resource students to real-world challenges facing national parks and protected areas. Environmental management of a resource is complex and when species cross boundaries in response to climate shifts means resource management has to be engaged in understanding societal pressures. Graduates of natural resource degrees now need to be multi-culturally sensitive as wildlife cross from rural to urban areas, or cross national boundaries or respond to environmental pollutants. My interests in developing a foundational course in diversity and inclusion in natural resources, would span the national and international boundaries to anchor the minor in inclusive natural resource approaches.

In summary, I am committed to helping students (both undergraduate and graduate) appreciate how research informs environmental policy (nationally and internationally), and vice versa. Research occurs in social contexts, and helping developing scientists and practitioners develop a cross-cultural understanding of ecological is critical if we are to preserve natural

resources and live sustainably.

Gillian Bowser, Research Statement My research is interdisciplinary—I examine the intersections between humans and the

environment with a focus on environmental issues mixed with society. My research portfolio reflects a mix of social and ecological issues with grants on coupled natural human systems (NSF CNH-S 2016-2021), measuring ecological indicators in high altitude environments (Fulbright Scholarship 2015), citizen science (NSF DBI RCN-UBE) and assessing student learning (NSF EHR RCN-UBE). My primary interests are of ecological interest are in pollinators and associated flower visitors, ecological indicators, and biodiversity. These organisms are often the first indicators of changes and yet provide methodological challenges for field research given their taxonomic complexity.

My current ecological interests are in pollinator ecology and the impacts of climate change on pollinator services in high elevation areas. Understanding shift in high alpine ecosystem diversity using pollinators and other invertebrates as indicators allows me to incorporate citizen science approaches where our team also creates ecosystem profiles of diversity for each area of study. In this larger team project, I am also interested in the role of different hydrological systems that are shifting under glacial retreat with cascading effects on invertebrate organisms and associated endemic avian fauna dependent on isolated high elevation lakes.

My interest in citizen science and biodiversity indicators developed through my work with the National Park Service on bioblitzes and species discovery. While studying bioblitzes and the taxonomic challenges of species identification, I interviewed students and community members as part of a National Park Service (NPS Cooperative Ecosystem Grant 2016) grant on Digital Ambassadors—engaging undergraduate students in bioblitzes. The research team developed a larger Research Coordination Network project (NSF DBI RCN-UBE) focused on how biodiversity tools in citizen science can introduce students to data, and scientific analysis. This team conducted training and worked with the National Park Service Centennial bioblitzes. As citizen science tools develop in complexity, I continue to explore how to use cellphones and digital datasets to engage different audiences through studies on pollinator shifts in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. This research led to a new area of sharing alpine research as part of a Marie Curie European Union Grant RISE called Highlands with The Mountain Institute (a nongovernment organization in the US and Peru) and developing citizen science student research project on high elevation pollinators with Centre de Recherches sur les Écosystèmes d'Altitude (CRÉA Mont-Blanc) in Chamonix, France. A similar project on People and Pollinators is under development to explore the interactions of pastoral livelihoods, culture and pollinators in Africa (NSF AccelNet).

Partnerships are essential to my interdisciplinary research. As an applied ecologist, I collaborate with social scientists, tourism experts and life scientists to explore ecosystem services using citizen science. My Coupled Natural Human on glacial retreat in the Andes of Peru (NSF CNH-S) focuses on the impacts of glacial retreat on pastoral communities and is a partnership with University of Texas, Michigan Technological University, La Molina University, Peru and The Mountain Institute. This multidisciplinary project on glacial retreat in Peru has two parallel tracks with a social science team working with the pastoral communities in the high Andes; while the hydrological and biodiversity teams explore glacial melt and biodiversity measures. These multidisciplinary approaches have led to additional partnerships with Peruvian institutions including two new grants on evaluating indicators in parks and protected areas under La Molina University. This research will focus on bringing citizen science databases to the national parks

and local communities in Peru as tools to assess changing environmental conditions. These collaborations are new and should result in publications with immediate relevance to practitioners—the social science team on the NSF CNHS-S has already published Spanish language articles on livestock movement. The workshop for this grant on integrating ecological indicators and park management was funded by CONCYTEC, The Peruvian National Center on Technology and Innovation. These studies will also inform a new coupled natural human grant (NSF CNH-L) that our team is preparing to broaden our research in Huscäran National Park and associated communities.

My success in securing extra-mural funding across a wide variety of topics has allowed me to maintain a consistent publication record in spite of not being a tenured-line faculty position. I believe that to broaden participation in interdisciplinary research, scholars must publish both empirical studies as well as assessments and other works for policy makers or local communities (GEO6 Summary for Policy Makers, GGEO), as well as commentaries imploring our colleagues to examine practices that are either biased or ignore the voices of diverse people (e.g., Cid & Bowser 2015; Stoepler & Bowser, 2018). I also believe it is important to mentor graduate students in communicating their research (Wilkens, Bowser, Moore 2017; Garcia, Bowser & Wilson 2014) and encourage graduate students to also explore international research and interdisciplinary opportunities (Shinbot, Gretzel, Wilkens & Bowser 2018). Some of my newer areas of research interest include deeper exploration of the impact of the field experience on minority participation (proposal to NSF); pollinator decline in the greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (proposal to Monaco Foundation), People and Pollinators (proposals to NSF and to African Ecological Society). The work on pollinators has led to several smaller proposals on honey bees (Jefferson County Extension 2018) and work exploring honey production, human health and environmental toxins that my current graduate student is exploring. I believe my strong grant record establishes a good base for me to move into these areas of research and successfully support graduate students in rewarding research important to a global and diverse society.

Gillian Bowser Diversity and Inclusion Statement As a researcher and ecological consultant, I work in national and international settings where

cultures represent a spectrum of racial and religious diversity and differing worldviews. As a woman of color, I use such experiences to bring more diverse voices to issues of natural resources, conservation, and sustainability. For diversity and inclusion, my research, service and outreach center on the integration of those diverse views into ecological research and natural resource management through students and community outreach.

Active learning and team-based projects with diverse members in field settings appear to have positive influence on underrepresented minority students where they feel more confident and more engaged in the natural resource setting. For student-centered research on diversity and inclusion in natural resources, I use mixed-methods—social science combined with ecological science-- to introduce students to ecological landscapes while concurrently exploring their own comfort in the community of ecologists. This translates to grants that used student assessments consisting of semi-structured interviews focused on self-efficacy combined with data driven research projects in protected areas (NSF RCN, 2009- 2016; NSF RCN-UBE 2016- present; Beacham O’Malley Charitable Trust 2016-2018; National Park Service Cooperative Ecosystem Science Grant 2015-2016). In addition, my research explores the cultural context within the field setting by putting students in ethnically and racially diverse teams. The peer team structure has led to positive influences on students’ descriptions of their own interest in science and confidence in understanding science concepts (Bowser, Gretzel, Davis, & Brown 2014; Gretzel, Davis, Bowser, Jiang, & Brown 2014). Measuring self-efficacy is an important metric for minority students to capture issues of exclusion or bias that are not detected directly by faculty or staff members but may influence future career decisions of those students (Bowser, Roberts, Simmons, & Perales 2012).

Many environmental disciplines require students to have field experience, but these experiences can become barriers to participation for minority students, especially if the culture of the field camp/experience itself is not welcoming to people from different racial/ethnic groups. My most recent NSF grant (NSF-GEO-GOLD 2017-2020) looked on the impact of the field experience on ethnically and racially diverse students by focusing on field camp administrators and faculty members. We explored perceptions of bias and inclusion by the faculty members towards diverse students. Our preliminary results found that understanding how a field experience could exclude certain groups is an important area of research before diversity within the discipline can be fully addressed. During our workshop, many faculty members expressed discomfort in not knowing what cultural connections may exist in a landscape setting. Encouraging faculty mentors to find such stories and help students see cultural connections to disciplinary research is one element of my research that addresses diversity and inclusion in natural resources. It is an area that I hope to continue developing.

I work with local communities in my international research projects where bias against minority or indigenous groups often extends into gender and specific cultural groups (NSF RCN-SEES 2010-2016). My international work with the United Nations (UN) Environmental programs and with UN Framework Convention on Climate Change focuses on the integration of cultural and gender biases in the global management of natural resources. This work often focuses on the intersections of human rights and environmental issues such as toxins in the environment, loss of ecosystem services to particular communities through climate events, etc. My work is represented in the UN Global Gender Report (2016) and the final Global

Environmental Outlook 6 (GEO6) of 2019, where my task is to incorporate issues of gender and biodiversity as intersections for policy and environmental assessments. My role as a stakeholder on the high level review panels for the UN included evaluating the cross cutting issues of gender and biodiversity in international environmental assessments and agreements.

Environmental justice and human rights influence how natural resources are valued within policy frameworks, my research interests in Peru and the Colorado Front Range focuses on the intersections of environmental issues, environmental justice and human rights. The environmental justice issues along the Front Range of Colorado associated with old mining activities or hazardous sites within the City of Denver mirror similar issues in the mountains of Peru. Land Tenure and rights to access often involve indigenous people, minority cultures or immigrant groups and the intersections of rights with environmental condition are critical areas of research under changing climates. My classes on Environmental Justice often focus on the issue of pollutants while my research looks at the shifts in different services (such as pollination) that may be indicative of larger climate justice issues (such as a loss of a livelihood). Hence, by exploring regional issues of equity, access, and agency as they relate to environmental issues, I help students consider parallel issues that exist globally as well as continue to develop my own research on the human-environment nexus.

Lastly diversity and inclusion are often addressed through personal connections and stories. When we fail to incorporate different worldviews of communicating stories of resource management, students’ perceptions can be limited to one cultural perspective. Western US history is dominated by images of western European heritage, and yet many cultures participated with complex stories and interactions in the exploration of the American West. Students interested in natural resources should know the roles of these diverse voices (such as African American, Hispanic, Asian, and indigenous cultures) played in shaping the western US. The traditional knowledge of the tribes within the areas around CSU’s Mountain Campus, for example, should be reflected in the curriculum and the inclusion of tribal histories on that campus through land acknowledgement statements and shared knowledge. Highlighting the traditional knowledge about the resources on that campus is important for every Warner student to understand along with the history of African American fur trappers who passed through the valley where the Mountain Campus now sits. These stories help me connect students to the diverse heritage of our land, and stories of early workers in national parks, railroads, and in national parks remind us of the complex heritage of many people in the west. If hired as a professor of diversity and inclusion in the Warner College of Natural Resources, I am committed to integrating these issues about which I am passionate into my Research, Teaching, and Service. I will collaborate with colleagues within my department and college, but also across campus, who share interests in this rich and growing area of scholarship.

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CBE—Life Sciences Education • 15:mr1, 1–6, Winter 2016 15:mr1, 1

MEETING REPORT

ABSTRACTThe first summit of projects funded by the National Science Foundation’s Research Co-ordination Networks for Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN-UBE) program was held January 14–16, 2016, in Washington, DC. Sixty-five scientists and science educators from 38 of the 41 Incubator and Full RCN-UBE awards discussed the value and contributions of RCNs to the national biology education reform effort. The summit illustrated the prog-ress of this innovative UBE track, first awarded in 2009. Participants shared experiences regarding network development and growth, identified best practices and challenges faced in network management, and discussed work accomplished. We report here on key aspects of network evaluation, characteristics of successful networks, and how to sustain and broaden participation in networks. Evidence from successful networks indicates that 5 years (the length of a Full RCN-UBE) may be insufficient time to produce a cohesive and effective network. While online communication promotes the activities of a network and disseminates effective practices, face-to-face meetings are critical for establishing ties between network participants. Creation of these National Science Foundation–funded networks may be particularly useful for consortia of faculty working to address problems or exchange novel solutions discovered while introducing active-learning methods and/or course-based research into their curricula.

INTRODUCTIONThere is a growing body of diverse examples that demonstrate how well-designed networks enhance the flow of ideas and lead to innovation (Pentland, 2014). Net-working to communicate research strategies and outcomes is now an essential aspect of the process of science (Schmidt, 2015). Supporting that notion, the National Sci-ence Foundation (NSF) initiated the Research Coordination Network (RCN) program in 2000. The RCN program funds projects in basic research or education that aim to promote a field or inspire new directions through increased collaborative work by network members. The intended outcome of an RCN is not to produce research prod-ucts per se, but rather to create opportunities to nurture new collaborations and address novel research topics that arise through interactions with colleagues. Advances in biology education are being made using a wide variety of strategies that span disci-plinary, organizational, and geographic boundaries. Thus, in 2009, NSF made the first RCN awards for biology education projects, using a dedicated track within the pro-gram, the RCN-UBE (Undergraduate Biology Education) track, to “catalyze positive changes in biology undergraduate education” (NSF, 2008).

Carrie Diaz Eaton,† Deborah Allen,‡ Laurel J. Anderson,§ Gillian Bowser,‖ Mark A. Pauley,¶ Kathy S. Williams,# and Gordon E. Uno@*†Center for Biodiversity, Unity College, Unity, ME 04988; ‡Department of Biological Sciences, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716; §Department of Botany & Microbiology, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, OH 43015; ‖Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523; ¶School of Interdisciplinary Informatics, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182; #Department of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182; @Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019

Summit of the Research Coordination Networks for Undergraduate Biology Education

DOI:10.1187/cbe.16-03-0147

*Address correspondence to: Gordon E. Uno (guno@ou.edu).

© 2016 C. D. Eaton et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2016 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

“ASCB®” and “The American Society for Cell Biology®” are registered trademarks of The American Society for Cell Biology.

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RCN funds can be used to support new collaborations and are designed to spur networks that will share information and, as a result, advance the field. (RCN awards do not support existing networks or ongoing collaborations.) Funded network-ing activities may include support for travel and/or meetings to share information, coordinating planned research, synthesizing knowledge, and/or developing community standards and assessments. Funds can also be used to pay for support staff or the time of a coordinator to organize and lead activities of the network and for virtual infrastructure to support ongoing col-laboration, outreach, and dissemination. However, funds may not be used to support the research collaborations that result. The RCN-UBE track is unique in the RCN program, in that it offers both 1-year “Incubator” awards to seed network develop-ment and 5-year “Full” awards. As of NSF fiscal year 2016, 41 RCN-UBE projects have been funded, either as Incubators or as Full awards; several Incubator awardees reapplied to the pro-gram and were awarded a Full project (Table 1).

The 41 NSF RCN-UBE–funded networks are using a diverse group of strategies, all aimed at improving undergraduate biol-ogy education, but all unique (Table 1). Researchers from RCNs in other multidisciplinary research fields (such as ecology) have sometimes formed broader collaborative communities through regular meetings. For example, members of the Long Term Eco-logical Reserves (LTER) program and of the Field Stations and Marine Laboratories (FSML) program meet regularly, sometimes formally (e.g., through the Organization of Biological Field Sta-tions, OBFS). These gatherings of networked “communities” have provided opportunities for scientists, often with diverse backgrounds, to connect, communicate, and develop collabora-tions that can lead to new research trajectories. Owing to our common theme of undergraduate biology education, many RCN-UBE networks share members but also include those spanning different areas of expertise. Thus, it seemed very worthwhile to assemble an “RCN community,” where the individual RCN-UBE networks could share information on such common issues as pro-moting diversity, supporting multidisciplinary collaboration, and identifying ways to sustain their efforts, among others. Such a meeting of the leadership of the RCN-UBE networks could open up new possibilities for innovation in biology education and would allow us to target opportunities in ways a single RCN-UBE might not be able to do (National Research Council, 2014).

Although RCN principal investigators (PIs) have convened on several occasions to discuss common challenges and oppor-tunities in building, sustaining, and managing RCNs, the last of these meetings was in December 2010, a time when the RCN-UBE program was too new for meaningful exchanges specific to the track. Given that there is now a vibrant community, a group of RCN-UBE PIs organized an RCN-UBE Summit, which was held January 14–16, 2016, in Washington, DC, with support from the NSF. Sixty-five people, representing 38 RCN-UBE proj-ects (Table 1), attended the meeting.

In addition to highlighting and reviewing the progress of the RCN-UBE projects, the goals of the meeting included identify-ing ways to improve, grow, sustain, and evaluate the individual networks and the RCN-UBE program itself. The summit also enabled participants to build connections that could potentially develop into novel collaborations across the RCN-UBE commu-nity. Presentations, panel discussion sessions, and two poster sessions, provided attendees with opportunities to learn about

the activities of the RCNs represented at the summit. Finally, we explored ways to disseminate strategies for network growth, maintenance, and evaluation that have been tried and adopted by the many types of networks represented at the summit.

Summit activities were organized around the following themes: 1) sharing successes achieved by diverse RCN-UBEs, 2) exploring successful strategies for network management, 3) broadening participation in networks, 4) sustaining networks through time, and 5) evaluating network success. Each was dis-cussed during different meeting sessions. Summaries of findings and recommendations from each session are presented below.

Sharing SuccessesA full list of the networks represented at the RCN-UBE Summit appears in Table 1. Examples of RCNs formed with support of the RCN-UBE program include: 1) Course-based Undergradu-ate Research Experiences Network (CUREnet; http://curenet .cns.utexas.edu), which is creating course-based undergraduate research experiences in biology with the goal of fostering stu-dents’ understanding of core biology concepts and development of scientific competencies; 2) an online networking hub for collaboration, discovery, and synthesis in quantitative biology curricula, now called QUBES, for Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (2015; http://qubeshub.org), which is bringing together mathematics and biology; 3) Net-work for Integrating Bioinformatics into Life Sciences Education (NIBLSE, 2016; “nibbles”; http://qubeshub.org/groups/niblse), which is working to integrate the emerging field of bioinformat-ics into the life sciences curriculum; 4) Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN, 2010; http://erenweb.org), which is developing educational activities anchored in authentic, col-laborative, ecological research experiences; 5) Faculty Devel-oper Network for Undergraduate Biology Education (FDN-UBE; http://biofacdevelopers.org), which is addressing challenges in motivating, sustaining, and supporting faculty change toward reform-based teaching practices; and 6) the Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network (RMSSN), which focuses on undergraduate learning in informal settings and has transitioned from public to sustained financing through a non-profit model. In addition to the networks listed in Table 1, many other successful biology education networks exist—for example, HHMI SEA-PHAGES (www.hhmi.org/programs/sci-ence-education-alliance), the Genomics Education Partnership (GEP; https://gep.wustl.edu), BioQUEST Curriculum Consor-tium (http://bioquest.org), and the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT; http://bio.davidson.edu/gcat). Because these networks were started without NSF RCN sup-port, they were not represented at this summit.

Characteristics of Successful Networks: Network ManagementThe summit opened with a discussion of key characteristics of successful networks. This was informed by an informal survey of 87 participants at two meetings of the RCN-UBE “Preparing to Prepare the 21st Century Biology Student” (Table 1). Partic-ipants were asked for their responses to the question “What makes a network work?” The following key features of success-ful networks were identified:

1. Shared goals and visions are critical. Successful networks consist of people with similar aims who are facing similar

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TABLE 1. Projects represented by the attendees of the first summit meeting of the RCN-UBE, a track within NSF’s RCN program

Award year Principal investigator Project title (award type: Incubator [I] or Full [F])a

2009 Gordon E. Uno Preparing to Prepare the 21st Century Biology Student: Using Scientific Societies as Change Agents for the Introductory Biology Experience [F]

2009 Patricia Harrison Open Science: An Education Network in Ethnobiology to Coordinate the Development of a New Culture in the Undergraduate Science Classroom [F]

2009 Christopher Kvaal RCN-UBE Collaborative Workshop held Friday, January 30, to Saturday, January 31, 2009, in Minneapolis, MN [I]

2010 Lori Scott Microbial Genome Annotation Network [F]2010 Laurel J. Anderson Establishing an Ecological Research/Education Network at Primarily Undergraduate

Institutions [F]2010, 2012 Mary Pat Wenderoth SABER: Accelerating the Emergence of Biology Education Research as a New

Subdiscipline of Biology [I, F]2010 Gillian Bowser Rocky Mountain Sustainability and Science Network: Enhancing Undergraduate

Student Learning of Biological Concepts [F]2010 Joseph Cook Advancing Integration of Museums into Undergraduate Programs (AIM-UP!) [F]2010 Wendy Silk Trial Network to Bring Music to the Study of Biology [I]2010 Lee Hughes Planning a Research Network on Assessing Learning Technologies in Undergraduate

Biology Education [I]2010 Ellis Bell Promoting Concept-Driven Teaching Strategies in Biochemistry and Molecular

Biology through Concept Assessments [F]2010 Marlene Moore Willamette Valley Biological Education Network (WVBEN): Using Regional

Pedagogical Communities to Improve Undergraduate Learning Environments in Biology [I]

2010 Joseph Koonce Lake Erie Watershed Research and Education Network [I]2010, 2011 Margaret Waterman The Case Study and PBL Network [I, F]2010, 2011 Kathleen Fisher and Kathy

S. WilliamsBioHUB: An Internet HUB for the Conceptual Assessment in Biology Community

[I, F]2011, 2014 Rachelle Spell Bridging the Divide between Research and Education with Authentic Research

Experiences in Introductory Biology [I, F]2011 Erin Dolan Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences Network (CUREnet) [F]2011 Michael Boyle Transforming Undergraduate Education through Increased Faculty Access to

NextGen Sequencing Runs [I]2011 Holly Gaff Interdisciplinary Communication Laboratory for Undergraduate Biology (iCLUB) [I]2011 Raphael Isokpehi Visual Analytics in a Biology Curriculum Network [I]2013 Philip Myers Enhancing Data Discovery and Usability for Inquiry in Biology Education [I]2013, 2015 Elisabeth Schussler Biology Teaching Assistant Project (BioTAP) [I, F]2013 Vincent Buonaccorsi GCAT-SEEK: The Genome Consortium for Active Undergraduate Research and

Teaching Using Next-Generation Sequencing [F]2013 Susan Keen Animated Discussions: Biologists and Visual Artists Foster Learning through

Animations [I]2013 Stasinos Stavrianeas Northwest Biosciences Consortium (NWBC): Implementation of Vision and Change

in the Introductory Biology Curriculum [F]2014 Marsha Matyas Growing a Physiology Education Community of Practice [I]2014 Diann Jordan HBCU-ALBN: Network of Biologists and Life Science Educators for Vision and

Change in the Curriculum [I]2014, 2015 Mark A. Pauley Network for Integrating Bioinformatics into Life Sciences Education (NIBLSE) [I, F]2014 Nancy Palaez Assessment of Competence in Experimental Design in Biology (ACED-Bio) Network

[F]2014 Robert Newman Development of a Build-a-Genome Network to Teach Synthetic Biology at Diverse

Undergraduate Institutions [I]2014 Michael LaMar An Online Networking Hub for Collaboration, Discovery, and Synthesis in

Quantitative Biology Curricula [I]2014 Deborah Allen Faculty Development Network for Undergraduate Biology (FDN-UB) [F]2014 William Davis Northwest PULSE: A Community of Practice for Departmental Transformation

Using Vision and Change [F]2015 Sue Wick Promoting Active Learning and Mentoring (PALM) [I]2015 Teresa Mourad Next Generation Careers—Innovation in Environmental Biology Education [I]2015 Gordon E. Uno RCN-UBE Summit: Learning from the Community of Education Networks

[ conference]aIn cases in which an Incubator project [I] was followed by a Full award [F], the title is that of the Full award.

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challenges, but may also include people from different disciplines.

2. Networks should have effective and regular communica-tion. It is helpful for network members to receive regular updates about network activities; for example, through webinars and meetings or scheduled conference calls and email.

3. Networks should be a safe place to share and discuss ideas. The environment should be collaborative, constructive, and positive, so that there is trust among members.

4. Although online meetings can be used to reinforce connec-tions, face-to-face time is essential for effective collabora-tion.

5. There should be easy access to forums and an engaging project website. These should provide opportunities for members to contribute asynchronously. Some networks use social media effectively in this context.

6. It is important to cultivate interpersonal relationships in the network so that participants want to interact and sup-port one another.

7. There should be mechanisms to efficiently share resources, such as a repository of strategies and methods, accompa-nied by a framework to encourage frequent contributions and discussion.

8. Successful networks have people who can bring ideas into practice. Successful UBE networks have members who have specific expertise (of various types) relevant to improving science education who can share that knowl-edge.

9. Networks work best when there are many people involved with a high proportion of members actively participating. Consequently, mechanisms have to be developed for deal-ing with people who do not contribute.

10. Basic group norms should be established; clear and mutu-ally accepted formats for interactions, relevant activities, and functions will facilitate collaborations.

11. Every RCN benefits from a point person to keep the group going; that is, a nexus/taskmaster to focus and organize efforts, who maintains a timeline and sets deadlines.

Participants agreed that these characteristics of successful networks, with specific examples from RCN-UBEs of how these best practices were carried out, formed the basis for useful net-work management. Slides for a related discussion of network management are available at the summit website (RCN-UBE Summit, 2016).

RCN-UBE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIESBroadening Participation in NetworksThere was a strong common desire at the summit to increase the number of faculty and students from underrepresented groups who are participating in and benefiting from RCN-UBE activities. Panelists in this session included discussants from Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, DC, and leaders from RCNs such as the RMSSN (Table 1), which have had success in recruiting diverse student and fac-ulty participants. To effectively broaden participation in RCNs, more faculty and researchers from diverse backgrounds and with a variety of experiences need to be recruited as active members with meaningful roles. Dr. George Middendorf from

Howard University highlighted the importance of bringing historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) members in as full partners at the beginning of project development, not after the RCN itself has been formed. Dr. Gillian Bowser, representing RMSSN (Table 1), discussed perceived recruit-ment barriers for underrepresented minority (URM) students and the importance of approaching recruitment from the per-spective of URM students themselves. Presenting the success-ful recruitment practices of RMSSN as an example, Dr. Bowser highlighted using student voices as part of the recruitment strategy for RMSSN, for which applicant and recruitment pools regularly exceed 80% URM students despite the lead institution, Colorado State University, being predominantly white. Listening to the voices of the URM students by using self-efficacy survey techniques from the social sciences is an innovative approach to broadening participation in the eco-logical sciences; during the past two decades, self-efficacy has emerged as a highly effective predictor of students’ motivation and learning (Zimmerman, 2000). RCN-UBE leaders agreed that reaching out to faculty at 2-year and minority-serving institutions might help with diversity goals but that more effort was needed to change recruitment styles to a focus on the perceptions and motivation of the minority students them-selves. In sum, successful strategies for broadening minority participation in networks include bringing diverse faculty and institutions into the RCNs in a meaningful way, starting at the network’s inception. Equally important is the use of tech-niques from other disciplines, such as the social sciences, to understand perceptions of barriers that URM students, fac-ulty, and researchers face in the sciences and to consider how RCN approaches can overcome such perceptions and provide a welcoming space.

Sustaining Networks through TimeEvidence from the RCN-UBE projects and remarks by the speak-ers at the summit suggested that a 5-year award may not pro-vide sufficient time for most RCN-UBE networks to reach their full potential. Information shared at the summit indicated that many RCNs required more than 5 years for members to form collaborations robust enough to affect scientific output. Thus, it was proposed that the RCN-UBE program adopt a mechanism by which “mature” RCN-UBE projects—those that have demon-strated success and progress toward their goals—could seek and receive additional funding to complete project implemen-tation, find ways to sustain themselves, or develop new projects that allow them to evolve in sustainable directions.

As discussed at the summit, some RCN-UBEs have creatively moved into other realms as a way to evolve beyond RCN fund-ing. For example, some have pursued support from other fund-ing programs (e.g., QUBES was awarded an NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources [IUSE] Ideas Lab grant), become professional societ-ies (e.g., the establishment of the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research [SABER]), or formed nonprofit organizations (e.g., the RMSSN, which has received private foundation funding). RCN-UBE PIs have begun discussing ways to identify and share information about these opportunities for sustaining their communities beyond RCN-UBE funding. In addition, new projects and collaborations have emerged from the discussions and interactions that occurred at RCN-UBE

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meetings. For instance, the new FDN-UBE emerged after discussions held at meetings of the “Preparing to Prepare the 21st Century Biology Student” UBE (Table 1).

Evaluating Network SuccessNSF programs such as the earlier Transforming Undergradu-ate Education in STEM (TUES) and the current IUSE pro-grams have produced traditional publication products describing their innovations and findings. In contrast, RCNs are measured by how successfully they build networks of research collaborators and participants that expand research horizons, a very different outcome from other funded proj-ects. This is an advantage, because the RCN-UBEs can focus on developing strong coalitions in biology education (cou-pled with other disciplines, such as the social sciences, as appropriate) that can drive widespread and sustainable change. One example of such an RCN-UBE project evolving into a meaningful voice in biology education is SABER, now a national society that had more than 500 registrants for the Fifth Annual Meeting in 2015 (SABER, 2016). Another example is the EREN project, an RCN that facilitates faculty and undergraduate student participation in multisite ecolog-ical research (Bowne et al., 2011; Simmons et al., 2016). This project has engaged more than 300 faculty members from more than 200 institutions (with some international partners) and has reached an estimated 4000+ undergradu-ate students. EREN enables participants from primarily undergraduate institutions to engage in ecological studies at larger spatial scales than most faculty and students at these institutions can address alone. However, largely due to the nature of long-term multisite ecological research and the complexity of managing a multisite project with multiple col-laborators (many of whom have primarily teaching roles with limited time for research), the production of science publications is often slow. Engaging students in authentic undergraduate research opportunities is considered a high-impact practice for student success (Kuh, 2008). How-ever, obtaining funding to manage coordination of such opportunities is difficult when publications are produced on a slower timeline and on a smaller scale than would be expected of a conventional research laboratory. EREN has helped its member faculty engage in these activities without adding the pressure of needing to publish a high number of research papers. (See the summit website [RCN-UBE Sum-mit, 2016] for the presentation about EREN.) Finally, RMSSN is an example of a network that has successfully tracked participating students over the course of the project. RMSSN maintains communication with members of every class since 2009. RMSSN is a smaller RCN, with faculty par-ticipants from 14 institutions (including community colleges, minority-serving institutions, and international institutions) mentoring just over 200 student participants.

Formal project evaluation generally uses multiple alterna-tive approaches to measure impact, and the summit benefited from program assessment advice presented by Pamela Bishop (associate director for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) evaluation at the National Institute for Mathematical Biology and Synthesis [NIMBioS]), Yolanda George (American Association for the Advancement of Sci-ence), and Chris Meyer (NSF). Social networking analysis and

other approaches from the social sciences are being applied to this area in novel ways and may be adopted for describing RCNs. Unfortunately, RCN budgets, particularly those for Incubator-level projects, are often not sufficient to provide incentives for participants or to support crucial elements of a project, such as an external evaluator. Leveraging campus resources and online prototypes for assessment can be helpful. Small groups discussed the use of survey instruments to col-lect data on various aspects of our diverse projects to measure their activities and outcomes. A working group has begun to construct and pilot a survey using measures identified at the summit that would describe these varied UBE networks and projects.

Clearly, all summit participants recognized the value of pro-gram assessment for RCN-UBEs and encouraged the application of strong assessment plans for all long-term education projects. A white paper or miniconference about evaluating network education projects could be a valuable future activity of the RCN-UBE program.

A NETWORK OF NETWORKSThe summit was an excellent opportunity for RCNs to learn from one another, especially for the newest projects to learn from the experiences of more mature RCNs. The RCN-UBE community is developing strategies to continue communica-tions and networking. Participants felt that their interactions with colleagues were highly valuable; all participants met new colleagues, and many developed nascent collaborations. These face-to-face interactions are critical to the formation of any net-work and to future collaborative work. Future meetings of RCN-UBE PIs will piggyback on the next Gordon Research Con-ference on Undergraduate Biology Education Research (Sum-mer 2017) or similar national meetings. This will allow summit participants to engage others interested in becoming part of their network or developing new networks, whether or not they are funded by the RCN-UBE program.

To preserve interactions and promote future ones, QUBES developed a website for the summit that provides the infra-structure for collaboration (https://qubeshub.org/groups/rcn_ube2016). All interested parties are welcome to participate. Unlike a digital repository, QUBES infrastructure is designed for collaboration and informal sharing of ideas and resources and for partners with existing digital repositories to further dis-seminate good work into biology education networks (Donovan et al., 2015). We encourage the community at large to become an active part of this conversation around biology education. QUBES invited all RCN-UBE projects to create and use space and offered assistance to do so. (While getting into QUBES requires a log-in, access to the site and use of space is free of charge to non-RCN science education projects, although contri-butions to the hub are welcomed.) Some current projects, such as EREN and BioHUB (a resource for conceptual assessments in biology), are creating groups on QUBES hub to utilize the data-base and data analytics features, while others are using group space for organization of meetings and materials (e.g., NIBLSE, 2016).

RECOMMENDATIONSRecommended practices and strategies for achieving our goals were discussed extensively at the summit, resulting in the

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“Network Management” list presented above. Systematically sharing information about which strategies work and which do not is an essential benefit of networking across all RCN-UBE communities that needs to be sustained. We note that evaluating success of these projects requires evaluation of contributions other than traditional products; this will require the identification and use of diverse measures. Clearly, com-munity building and productively addressing the diversity and inclusivity of these communities is a much-desired outcome and will take time to accomplish. Therefore, summit partici-pants are encouraging funding agencies to provide support both for appropriate program-level assessment and evaluation and for funding durations to support the time required to nur-ture the growth of communities and identify alternative resources to sustain that growth to achieve a sustainable mode of operation.

In summary, the RCN-UBE community, as members of the growing biology education community, aims to help distrib-ute knowledge about excellent biology and STEM education activities and resources to stakeholders in the public, private, and policy-making sectors. For those readers considering sub-mitting an RCN-UBE grant proposal to spur new collabora-tions to synthesize and advance knowledge in biology educa-tion, we offer a few suggestions: 1) bring all your partners into the planning process early as true collaborators with a shared and unifying vision; 2) include diverse partners and institutions at the start of the project; 3) make room in the budget for a coordinator of network activities and for assess-ment; 4) be purposeful in engaging partners through regular communication and virtual platforms; and 5) invite other dis-ciplines to participate in the use, evaluation, and dissemina-tion of RCN findings, especially in reaching out to diverse participants for RCN activities—explore participation and motivation from the perspective of the diverse audience, not from the perspective of a need for diverse participants. Together, we can work toward our goals of an inclusive, engaging life sciences curriculum.

REFERENCESBowne DR, Downing AL, Hoopes MF, LoGiudice K, Thomas CL, Anderson LJ,

Gartner T, Hornbach DJ, Kuers K, Machado JL, et al. (2011). Transforming ecological science at primarily undergraduate institutions through col-laborative networks. BioScience 61, 386–392.

Donovan S, Eaton CD, Gower ST, Jenkins KP, LaMar MD, Poli D, Sheehy R, Wojdak JM (2015). QUBES: a community focused on supporting teach-ing and learning in quantitative biology. Lett Biomath 2, 46–55.

Ecological Research and Education Network (2010). EREN home page. http://erenweb.org (accessed 9 March 2016).

Kuh GD (2008). High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter, Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.

National Research Council (2014). Networking field stations for discovery and innovation. In: Enhancing the Value and Sustainability of Field Sta-tions and Marine Laboratories in the 21st Century, Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 33–44.

National Science Foundation (2008). Dear Colleague Letter–Research Coor-dination Networks–Undergraduate Biology Education. www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08035/nsf08035.jsp (accessed 22 March 2016).

Network for Integrating Bioinformatics into Life Science Education (2016). NIBLSE home page. https://qubeshub.org/groups/niblse (accessed 29 March 2016).

Pentland A (2014). Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread—The Lessons from a New Science, New York: Penguin.

Quantitative Undergraduate Biology Education and Synthesis (2015). QUBES home page. https://qubeshub.org (accessed 29 March 2016).

Research Coordination Network–Undergraduate Biology Education Summit (2016). RCN-UBE Summit home page. https://qubeshub.org/groups/rcn_ube2016 (accessed 9 August 2016).

Schmidt B (2015). Foreword. In: Networking for Nerds: Find, Access and Land Hidden Game-Changing Career Opportunities Everywhere, ed. AG Levine, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, xi–xii.

Simmons JA, Anderson LJ, Bowne DR, Dosch JJ, Gartner TB, Hoopes MF, Kuers K, Lindquist ES, McCay TS, Pohlad BR, et al. (2016). Collaborative research networks provide unique opportunities for faculty and student researchers. Council Undergrad Res Q 36(4), 12–18.

Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (2016). SABER home page. https://saber-biologyeducationresearch.wikispaces.com (accessed 29 March 2016).

Zimmerman BJ (2000). Self-efficacy: an essential motive to learn. Contemp Educ Psychol 25, 82–91.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSWe thank all participants of the summit for their contributions to the rich discussions that are the basis for this summary. We thank

all organizers and participants of RCN-UBE projects for their energy and valuable contributions that are shared here. This work is supported in part by NSF award DBI-1543972 to G.E.U.

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Real Stories About Real Women:Communicating Role Models for FemaleTourism StudentsUlrike Gretzel a & Gillian Bowser b

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To cite this article: Ulrike Gretzel & Gillian Bowser (2013): Real Stories About Real Women:Communicating Role Models for Female Tourism Students, Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism,13:2, 170-183

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Real Stories About Real Women:Communicating Role Models for Female

Tourism Students

ULRIKE GRETZELUniversity of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia

GILLIAN BOWSERColorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

This article identifies the lack of role models as an important factorthat discourages women from taking on leadership roles in tourismcommunities, government agencies, companies, and academia.Based on discussions of the current literature on role models andthe importance of stories, the article presents case studies of initia-tives that use social media to collect and share the stories of femalerole models. The article then discusses opportunities to replicatesuch initiatives within the tourism education context to providefemale students and educators with opportunities to identify withand be encouraged by the real stories of real female tourismleaders.

KEYWORDS role model, leadership, gender, storytelling, socialmedia

We cannot solve global problems using half of the world’s brain power.

(Monika Devikka, as cited in Phelan, 2012)

Received August 20, 2012; accepted February 5, 2013Address correspondence to Ulrike Gretzel, Institute for Innovation in Business and Social

Research, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.E-mail: ugretzel@uow.edu.au

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INTRODUCTION

Understanding tourism requires a gendered perspective as all tourismactivities and processes emerge from a gendered society and affect gendersin different ways (Apostolopoulos, Sönmez, & Timothy, 2001; Byrne Swain,1995; Kinnaird & Hall, 1994). Gender refers to “. . . a system of culturallyconstructed identities, expressed in ideologies of masculinity and feminin-ity, interacting with socially structured relationships in divisions of laborand leisure, sexuality, and power between women and men” (Byrne Swain,1995, pp. 258–259). Gender stereotypes and gender-discriminating practicesembedded in society are transferred to and reproduced within tourism edu-cation and the tourism industry. This leads to great gender inequalities intourism employment (Costa, Carvalho, Cacador, & Breda, 2012). Althoughgender and tourism have been discussed to some extent in the tourismliterature (Sinclair, 1997), policy related to tourism and especially tourismeducation is still to a large extent gender-blind (Ferguson, 2009). The TourismEducation Futures Initiative (TEFI) 2011 meeting in Philadelphia, PA, starteddiscussions on viewing tourism education through a gender lens, but noconcrete efforts were initiated in response to the gender-related panel dis-cussions. This article seeks to rekindle the interest in a gender-equal futurefor tourism and suggests a concrete project as a step toward mobilizinggreater gender awareness in tourism education and toward supporting lead-ership development in women. In support of the project idea, it presentscase studies of initiatives that aim(ed) to foster gender equality through rolemodels who portray “real women” instead of models or celebrities and usedsocial media extensively to mobilize interest and participation in the projects.

FEMALE LEADERSHIP IN TOURISM

The tourism industry seems to be a particularly important sector for womenand provides a wide range of income-generation opportunities for women,especially in developing regions (UN Women, 2011). There are also clearleadership opportunities for women in tourism. Women are almost twice aslikely to be employers in tourism compared with other sectors, and womenaccount for one in five tourism ministers worldwide, which is more than inany other branch of government (UN Women, 2011). However, like in othersectors, there is a significant horizontal and vertical gender segregation ofthe labor market in tourism, with certain types of professions (e.g., cham-bermaids), lower-level jobs, and occupations with few career developmentopportunities being dominated by women (Costa, Carvalho, & Breda, 2011;Earthsummit2002.org, 2002). Only one in five tourism board chief executiveofficers are women, and only 23% of tourism industry associations have afemale chairperson (UN World Tourism Organization [UNWTO], 2011). The

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UNWTO report also stresses that although the proportion of women gradu-ates in all fields of education is increasing, there is still a shortage of womenteaching at the tertiary level.

King, McKercher, and Waryszak (2003) illustrate that in many Westerncountries, women make up a majority of tourism and hospitality studentcohorts, but about half of these students never enter the industry and thosewho do mostly occupy lower-level positions. Hjalager (2003) shows thatfemale tourism students are less ambitious compared with male studentsand that they aim mostly for middle-management positions and consider asignificantly narrower range of career opportunities. It is also worth notingthat none of the female students in the sample considered embarking onan academic career path. Hjalager concludes that perceived career prospectsand attitudes toward work life in the tourism industry are highly influencedby traditional gender patterns, with female students being less adventurousand less keen to work in large organizations. Similarly, Costa et al. (2012)report that female tourism students in Portugal are less likely to indicate thatthey would like to take on a leadership position compared with their malecounterparts, and they also have lower salary expectations.

Only 14% of FTSE 100 directorships are held by women, and womenare also significantly less likely to hold senior management positions in theseorganizations (Garcea, Linley, Mazurkiewicz, & Bailey, 2012). Rice (2012b)specifically looks at the lack of women in academic careers and pointsout that women see academic careers as more all-consuming, solitary, andunnecessarily competitive compared with how men see them. Women alsoperceive great sacrifice as a prerequisite for success in academia. They arefurther told that they will have more problems simply because they arewomen. All these factors discourage them from pursuing respective careeroptions. Pritchard, Morgan, Ateljevic, and Harris (2007) report that “. . . struc-tural gender inequalities remain depressingly intact in the world’s highereducation academies” (p. 3), indicating that female doctoral graduates aremore likely to pursue careers in the more family-friendly private sector, andthose females who pursue academic careers are less likely to have tenurethan are their male colleagues. Lack of female leadership is very visible inthe tourism academy with only six women listed among the leading tourismscholars (Zhao & Ritchie, 2007) and only eight out of 70 fellows of theInternational Academy for the Study of Tourism being women.

Therefore, although tourism programs around the world attract a largenumber of female students, these female students often lack role modelsin leadership positions in industry, academia, government, and communi-ties. This is especially true for women of underrepresented groups, as theyhave an even smaller likelihood of being represented in leadership positions.The UN Environment and Development UK Committee stresses that shar-ing of experiences and networking among women are critical in supportingwomen in their pursuit of leadership roles in tourism (Earthsummit2002.org,

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2002). This article reflects on the importance of role models and opportu-nities to take advantage of new media to collect and widely communicatestories about female leaders in tourism to inspire more women to considerleadership roles in the tourism industry, tourism-related government bodies,nongovernmental organizations, and academia.

LEADERSHIP FOR TRANSFORMATION

Management focuses on keeping current systems functioning, while lead-ership is essentially about producing change. Leadership for transformationas a concept refers to leadership that brings about fundamental changes tosystems. It is therefore a broader concept than traditional transformationalleadership, which concentrates on unleashing potential and instigatingchanges in followers (Bass, 1985). Ackoff (1999) explains systemic trans-formation as follows: “A system is transformed when the type of system itis thought to be is changed” (p. 25). Accordingly, leadership for transforma-tion is leadership that can produce and mobilize a vision of a transformedsystem. Isaksen and Tidd (2006) stress that leadership for transformationrequires integration of leadership, management, creativity, and innovation,and they emphasize that it is not exclusive to higher levels in organizationalstructures but, rather, happens across functions and levels. They also pointout that leadership for transformation requires recognition of the full spec-trum of talent in the entire employee population. Yet, focusing on femaletalent and leadership development can be an organizational taboo (Garceaet al., 2012).

Female Leaders as Change Agents

Female leaders are seen as instrumental for ending gender inequalities inthe workplace as gender gaps are wider and there is a stronger malerepresentation among organizational managers and supervisors (Hultin &Szulkin, 2003). The explanations for this phenomenon cited in the literatureinclude in-group preference and stereotyping as well as out-group exclu-sion (Gorman, 2005). Therefore, female leaders are often conceptualized aschange agents necessary to break the vicious cycle of male leaders cultivatingmale-dominated organizational structures and cultures. For such change tohappen, it is important that women reach the highest levels of leadership inorganizations. However, women generally report lower confidence in regardto their careers (Garcea et al., 2012), and women are selected less oftenas leaders than is suggested by their past performance due to the generaloverconfidence of males in their representation (Reuben, Rey-Biel, Sapienza,& Zingales, 2012). Further, leaders are typically seen as possessing quali-ties that are stereotypically masculine (e.g., assertiveness, rationality). This

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creates problems for female leaders who need to fulfill a leader role while atthe same time needing to balance their gender role (Kark, Waismel-Manor,& Shamir, 2012). However, transformational leadership and leadership fortransformation are often associated with feminine values such as caring andcompassion, which might actually provide women with an advantage (Eagly& Carli, 2003).

A recent study by Stainback and Kwon (2012) revealed that only hav-ing women in higher levels of organizational power actually leads to lowerlevels of sex segregation, while a large percentage of women in supervisorypositions is associated with higher levels of sex segregation. Ely (1994) sug-gests that social identity theory is the key to understanding whether femaleleaders will actually make a difference in the workplace. She found thatwomen in firms with few senior-level female leaders were less likely to per-ceive female leaders as role models and found less support in relationshipswith them because they see them as women who had to give up their iden-tity as women to reach these high ranks. The research therefore suggeststhat being able to be seen as a role model is critical in motivating otherwomen to follow suit but that not all female leaders are automatically seenas role models, suggesting that it is possible and desirable for women toreach high-level leadership positions.

Importance of Role Models

A role model is a person whose behavior in a particular role is imitated byothers (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, 2012a). Role models are lookedup to and revered and provide concrete examples for others to follow. Rolemodels positively influence aspirations and self-perceptions by means ofsocial comparison processes (Hoyt & Simon, 2011). They serve an essentialfunction in socialization processes. Consequently, role models have impor-tant impacts on career choices (Wright, Wong, & Newill, 1997) and are seenas critical in inspiring future leaders (Gibson & Cordova, 1999). Cheryan,Siy, Vichayapai, Drury, and Kim (2011, p. 661) point out that “interactingwith one member of a field, even briefly, can shape students’ beliefs abouttheir potential for success in that field.” Therefore, creating opportunities forexposure to role models is important in shaping the career aspirations ofcurrent students, especially when they are female. Women tend to underes-timate their potential for success, but their expectations can be modified ifexposed to role models they can identify with (Rice, 2012a).

Existing research has looked at how characteristics of role models mod-erate their positive impacts on aspirations. Women can have male rolemodels, but the sex of an authority model can matter under some circum-stances (Geis, Boston, & Hoffman, 1985). Lockwood (2006) showed thatwomen are more inspired by female career role models who demonstratethat gender barriers can be overcome. Similarly, Cheryan et al. (2011)

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revealed through experimental research that the most important criterionfor positive influence is whether the role model embodies stereotypes thatare seen as congruent with the female gender role. For example, success-ful female professors are often perceived by female doctoral students asdisplaying masculine characteristics, such as aggression and competiveness,and they are often childless, thus confirming negative stereotypes rather thanchallenging them (Rice, 2012b). Women who display such stereotypical char-acteristics are not likely to serve as an inspiration for women who would liketo pursue a similar career. In brief, women see themselves as outsiders andare influenced when they perceive that outsiders can make it (Rice, 2012a).

Rios, Stewart, and Winter (2010) found that female students bene-fit greatly from a curriculum that features female exemplars in terms ofidentification with female leaders and changes in perceptions of careeropportunities. Unfortunately, female role models are hard to find in topleadership positions due to negative stereotypes and discrimination againstwomen in the leadership domain (Eagly & Carli, 2007). Beaman, Duflo,Pande, and Topalova (2012) found that quotas can help in that the resultingexposure to female leadership raises aspirations and educational attainmentfor girls in villages with female council leaders.

However, role models can only inspire and provoke self-enhancementwhen their success seems achievable (Lockwood & Kunda, 1997). Hoyt andSimon (2011) suggest that perceiving success to be attainable is particularlyimportant for women who have to perform in a negatively stereotyped lead-ership domain. Top-level female leaders are likely seen as exceptions tothe rule (Dasgupta & Asgari, 2004). A review of research that deals withthe relationship between stereotypes, gender, and effectiveness of role mod-els is provided by Betz and Sekaquaptewa (2012) and further illustrates itscomplexity. Research by Hoyt and Simon demonstrates that the critical char-acteristic is not how far removed the leadership level is, but how able womenare to identify with these female role models. As such, same-sex role mod-els can be more effective, but they have to involve “real” women whoseaccomplishments are seen as replicable.

Importantly, as opposed to mentors and sponsors, direct interaction witha role model is not necessary for impacts (Gibson & Cordova, 1999). Thisopens up opportunities as to who could serve as a role model that should beseized. If the number of potential role models is small, sharing their storiesacross a wide population of female students becomes essential.

THE POWER OF STORIES AS A COMMUNICATION MEDIUM

Stories represent powerful means of communicating knowledge (Schank& Abelson, 1995), and they are generally seen as an essential structurefor human meaning-making (Bruner, 2002). They are perceived as more

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persuasive than other text genres (Padgett & Allen, 1997) because the spe-cific structure of stories influences the way in which they are processed.According to Packer and Jordon (2001), stories allow the human mind to“collapse boundaries of space and time, drawing attention to previouslyundetected connections, creating links between disparate ideas and ele-ments” (p. 174). Some researchers claim that this is the case because thestructure of stories resembles the associative way the human mind storesknowledge (Schank & Abelson, 1995). They are also inherently entertaining(Brewer, 1988), which makes it easier to pay attention to them and fostersrecall. Slater and Rouner (2002) further indicate that a student’s absorptionin a narrative and response to characters in a narrative enhances persua-sive effects and reduces counterarguing for contexts in which the contentof the story is counterattitudinal, while also limiting the influence of topicinvolvement. Stories are especially useful in situations of uncertainty andambiguity (Fleming, 2001). According to Rossiter (2002), stories encouragedeep involvement of the learner, and this involvement stimulates empathicresponse. She explains that the details and vivid imagery communicatedthrough stories foster both cognitive appreciation and affective response tothe experience of another person and are therefore especially useful forsituations where identification with a role model is desirable.

The importance and persuasive power of stories has been recognizedin various fields, including leadership (Fleming, 2001; Parkin, 2004). Shamir,Dayan-Horesh, and Adler (2005) propose that a leader’s life story can bean important source of influence and that the meaning(s) it communicatescan help enact leadership roles. Neuhauser (1993) stresses the importanceof stories as management tools due to their believability based on perceivedauthenticity and credibility. Storytelling has also been identified as an impor-tant means of constructing social bonds (Kraus, 2006), which is a criticalissue in building mentoring relationships. Driscoll and McKee (2006) recog-nize storytelling by leaders as a vital component of authentic transformationalleadership.

New technologies such as social media make it increasingly possible tocollect rich multimedia stories and distribute them. The Merriam WebsterOnline Dictionary (2012b) defines social media as forms of electroniccommunication (e.g., Web sites for social networking and microblogging)through which users create online communities to share information, ideas,personal messages, and other content (e.g., photos and videos). Web 2.0 asa technological platform, but also as a philosophy regarding control overcontent, provides important opportunities for information to be exchanged.Content in the social media space is to a large extent created by consumersfor consumers. It is typically based on real experiences by real people, whichcontributes to the high credibility and perceived authenticity of social mediamessages. The emergence of social media also created a culture of puttingthe self constantly on display and revealing intimate details of one’s life

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story. Therefore, social media is a critical means of social identity construc-tion and portrayal. Importantly, social media encourages social interactions,which means that contents can be jointly created and easily shared, there-fore allowing information to quickly spread through social networks. Thenarrative quality of social media and its resulting persuasive communicationpotential has been researched in the context of travelers sharing their tourismexperiences (Gretzel, Fesenmaier, Lee, & Tussyadiah, 2011), but it has yet tobe explored in the context of tourism education and leadership in tourism.

Case Studies of Stories by Real Women

The following describes cases in which social media in conjunctionwith consumer-generated stories was successfully used to expose a wideaudience to role models based on “real women”; therefore, they can beseen as instrumental in understanding how these different domains canbe effectively combined (Stake, 1995). Companies have already takenadvantage of the opportunity to elicit authentic consumption stories usingsocial media (see the Dove campaign for real beauty, http://web.archive.org/web/20070712074051/http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.ca/supports.asp?url=supports.asp&section=campaign&id=1560), thereby creating verypersuasive campaigns with powerful message contents. Instead of usinghighly idealized and photo-brushed models, these stories portray womenwith whom others can easily identify. They therefore present role modelsin positions that are seen as not only desirable but also achievable. TheDove campaign was recognized with two Grand Prix Cannes AdvertisingAwards in 2007. One of its explicit goals was to encourage women toparticipate in the discussion by casting votes and posting comments onthe campaign Web site. It led to the development of the Dove Self-EsteemFund with the goal of educating girls and women about a wider definitionof beauty (http://www.dove.us/Social-Mission/campaign-for-real-beauty.aspx). The Web site further reveals that in 2010, the Dove Movement forSelf-Esteem was founded to provide women with opportunities to mentorthe next generation. The movement has resulted in the development ofself-esteem building, educational programs, and activities, which havereached seven million girls so far.

The question is if and how social media can be used to elicit storiesto inspire women to become female leaders in the same way they inspiredthem to use Dove products. An example of how social media can be used tomobilize leaders among women is “1 Million Women,” a not-for-profit orga-nization that uses social media to engage women in climate-change actions(http://www.1millionwomen.com.au). Its goal is to encourage women toactively reduce CO2 emissions in their own lives and to create a pow-erful network of women ambassadors for climate change. Like Dove, thecampaign uses the faces and stories of real women to inspire others to

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engage in leadership efforts. Again, social media is employed to captureand share the stories of those women who have dedicated themselves toplaying a leadership role in the effort. 1 Million Women has grown into oneof the largest nonpolitical women’s organizations in Australia. It is one ofthe largest members-based environmental groups, with nearly 80,000 mem-bers, more than 36,000 members on Facebook, and about 9,000 womenand girls having attended one of its events (http://www.newsmaker.com.au/news/20596). Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard backed one of itsrecent campaigns called Recipe for Change (http://www.1millionwomen.com.au), which involved encouraging women across Australia to host a get-together of women to discuss ways in which women can save the Earth.As a result of the campaign, thousands of Australian women got togetherto exchange ideas about how to save energy and reduce waste (http://recipeforchange.1millionwomen.com.au).

Other examples can be extracted from the efforts of theGlobal Women Scholars Network (GWSN; for more information,see http://globalwomenscholars.wordpress.com) funded by the U.S.National Science Foundation to cultivate leadership among women insustainability-related sciences (http://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1140182). The GWSN is a network of female scholars andscholars interested in gender issues pertaining to sustainability research,recognizing that climate change affects women in different ways and thata female perspective is needed in solving global sustainability problems.As a research collaborative network, it is charged with connecting thesescholars on a global scale to change the face of climate change and sus-tainability research. Mentoring is a key aspect of GWSN’s activities, and theimportance of providing role models and support to female scholars is recog-nized. Although the network actively hosts workshops to co-locate scholarsin physical space, it quickly realized that inspiration and role modeling arerequired on a more global scale to trigger change. It therefore initiated aproject to collect stories of female role models to acknowledge them andto make their insights available to women around the world interested intackling climate change and sustainability problems. The initiative aims tocelebrate transformational leaders and potentially encourage a new genera-tion of female students to pursue leadership roles who would otherwise nothave identified with such opportunities.

Starting with a small group of female leaders organized under theumbrella of Climate Wise Women (http://climatewisewomen.org/?page_id=12), the GWSN initiative seeks to create rich and convincing portrayals ofthe important role women play in guiding climate-change efforts in com-munities, industry, government, and academia. One of the Climate WiseWomen is Ursula Rakova, who is leading the Carteret Islands evacuationefforts. Her story has been captured through a traditional documentary called“Sun Come Up” and has been told and retold through various YouTube

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videos and blog entries available online (http://journeytothesinkinglands.wordpress.com). Additional stories were collected from women who wereinstrumental in driving gender issues forward within the UN climate changesummits during the Rio+20 Climate Change Summit in 2012. A small selec-tion of stories is available through the GWSN YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/globalwomenscholars). All of these stories stress the impor-tance of mentoring and role models as well as networking women toencourage potential female leaders. Recognizing the viral nature of socialmedia and its potential to foster interactive dialogue, these initial storieswill act as seeds for a wider social media campaign that will ask womenacross the globe to describe their leadership efforts in this domain andwill encourage others to actively comment on them. The literature reviewclearly showed the importance of portraying role models with different char-acteristics. The social media-based campaign democratizes the process ofidentifying role models and allows women from different backgrounds tobe included. Thus, the stories will feature very high-level, formal leaders aswell as women who enact leadership at community levels. In all cases, theemphasis is on letting the women speak with their own voices, telling verypersonal stories rather than presenting official biographies. A specific focuswill be placed on women in academia to increase retention of women inhigher education programs and in academic and research-related jobs. Dueto the nature of the social media used for the project, there will even beopportunities for interactive dialogues as the women who are portrayed inthe stories can respond to comments made by others.

Implications for the Future of Tourism Education

The question raised in this article is how efforts similar to the GWSN ini-tiative could be implemented within the tourism education community. Theintroduction clearly outlined a need for more female leaders in all areasof tourism. Taking advantage of storytelling and social media, persuasiveportraits of female role models could be created to inspire female tourismstudents to become the future generation of academic, government, andindustry leaders. Following the TEFI spirit of global reach, such stories couldbe made available on the TEFI Web site and on its social media pages toshare role models across geographical boundaries. The success of the ini-tiative would depend on a distributed social effort of collecting stories atthe local level and sharing them with the global tourism community. Thiswould ensure diversity in the stories told and greater access to role modelsbeyond geographic and institutional boundaries. Social media tools providethe technological basis for this to happen.

An important aspect of such an initiative would be to find ways inwhich such stories could be effectively integrated into existing curricula andcourses as well as recruiting efforts for tourism education programs. Given

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the insights derived from the literature and the case studies, the authenticityof the stories and the ability of tourism students and/or junior tourismacademics to identify with them have to be ensured. The education literaturesuggests that the stories could be used to support autobiographical writingactivities that allow students to reflect on their own life experiences and howthey relate to the role-model stories (Birren & Deutchmann, 1991). Anotherquestion to be addressed is how to measure the effectiveness of such aninitiative beyond immediate inspiration by the stories. Although reflectionsby current female leaders on the importance of role models in their owncareer choices can provide some insights, ultimately, longitudinal studieswill be needed to measure the long-term effects of exposure to role-modelstories.

Overall, such an effort would contribute to greater gender awarenesswithin the TEFI community and beyond and would constitute a concretefollow-up from the discussions in Philadelphia and now Milan, Italy. TEFI’snew vision statement (“To be the leading, forward-looking network thatinspires, informs and supports tourism educators and students to passion-ately and courageously transform the world for the better”) clearly calls fornot only transformational leadership but also transformational learning withthe end-goal being transformation of the system that currently discourageswomen to take on leadership roles. If TEFI played a central role in the col-lection and distribution of these stories, it could use the initiative to furtherincrease its impact and add another concrete project to its portfolio of alreadyexisting initiatives. The key is that it would actively engage a great number oftourism scholars and would foster links with the industry. The project wouldalso direct more attention to the topic of female leadership in tourism, whichso far has been largely ignored by tourism educators and researchers.

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What is the “color” of climate? There is an urgent need to address the participation of underrepre-sented minorities in the sciences, and nowhere

is that need more urgent than in the ecological and environ-mental sciences. Despite a global environmental crisis that has brought together hundreds of cultures, languages, and ethnic groups, underrepresented people, especially women, are still a missing voice at the negotiation tables. Why are there so few? In this chapter, the experiences of women of color in the environmental sciences are examined through literature review and personal stories. Specifically, climate and color are defined as dualities for minority women—where these women may have a double burden, being underrepresented in the sciences as a whole and extremely rare in the environmental fields. Paradoxically, these terms can have dual meanings in the context of a discussion of environmental leadership for women of color. First, the

term color will be explored to examine the current data on minority women in the sciences and in environmental fields. In this context, color signifies “green” environmen-talism as well as the many shades of brown, reflective of women of different racial, cultural, and ethnic back-grounds. However, color is a highly charged term reflec-tive of the U.S. cultural context of society, which defines different ethnic and racial groups based on the tone or color of their skin. In that context, the colors of green and brown suggest that the environmental leadership experi-ence for women of color will be very different from that of others.

The term climate can also have dual meanings in envi-ronmental leadership for minorities. What is the “climate” of environmental professions and organizations in terms of the acceptance of women in leadership roles? Demographic data and personal stories gathered by the authors on their

7 THE COLOR OF CLIMATE

Ecology, Environment, Climate Change, and Women of Color—Exploring Environmental Leadership From the Perspective of Women of Color in Science

GILLIAN BOWSER

Colorado State University

NINA S. ROBERTS

San Francisco State University

DENISE R. SIMMONS

South Carolina State University

M. KATHLEEN PERALES

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

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7. The Color of Climate–•–61

own paths to leadership positions are woven together to highlight the role of mentoring and support structures. Background data on the climate associated with environ-mental leadership positions in environmental organizations show remarkably low persistence of women of color despite recent successes in increasing the number of minority graduate students in the sciences. Personal stories help emphasize the need for change in the climate of envi-ronmental organizations themselves.

Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion on the color of the climate in relation to community. Personal stories from women of color can help guide future leaders in developing community support, mentoring, and inclu-siveness in environmental leadership. Mentorship and community appear to play a central role in the persistence of minorities, particularly in the environmental field. Women leaders appear to blend mentorship and commu-nity into their support structures and leadership styles dif-ferently than men. To add a personal touch, the authors embed their own voices to add perspectives from four women scientists of color from very different disciplines as well as different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Women of color are rare in the sciences, and the personal voices are meant to both encourage others to walk the same path and also to encourage all to question and address the color of the current climate.

Complexity of Color

The sky was that crystal clear blue I always associated with early morning in the Rocky Mountains. The small plane arched its wings as we soared high over sagebrush-covered plateaus reflective of the majesty of the Serengeti. I adjusted my radiotelemetry receiver, and the antennae flashed in the morning sun, trembling on their wing mounts as they searched for radio-collared animals scattered below us. My receiver suddenly beeped, breaking a comfortable morning stillness, and the pilot dove toward the river, rocks, and bushes flashing past the wings. He pulled the plane into a screaming turn, and we climbed back toward daylight, scanning the canyon walls for our collared animal. As we burst out into the sunlight, wheels brushing the sagebrush along the canyon rim, I saw a tourist standing in wide-eyed, open-mouthed amazement, his early morning contemplation of the canyon disrupted by a single engine aircraft emerging below his feet. As we climbed to our apex, preparing to dive again, I saw a grizzly bear watching the tourist watching us, and for a moment the tableau seemed frozen: bear, plane, tourist, and I in a rose-colored painting of dawn over Yellowstone National Park. (Gillian Bowser)

What is the color of climate? The discussion on environ-mental leadership for women of color differs from the tra-ditional studies of gender in leadership for several reasons. Rarity is a dual pressure in leadership roles, and women of color in the environmental sciences uniquely face the inter-acting forces of both racism and sexism that are not part of

the typical female leadership model (Parker & Ogilvie, 1996). My career as a National Park Service wildlife biolo-gist is exemplary of that duality, and as the lead author of this chapter, I begin with a story typical of the adventures of any wildlife biologist yet atypical for an African American, Hispanic, or any other minority. A professional wildlife biologist and African American from Brooklyn, New York, is as rare a sight as a grizzly bear in Yellowstone Park, and my mere presence in a national park would elicit the same startled, open-mouthed, wide-eyed stare as the tourist in the story. That rarity is a common experience for minorities in the wilderness areas of the United States, but for minority women wildlife scientists, that same astonish-ment also comes from peers and colleagues even at the largest professional conferences within the field.

The color of climate refers to the duality and rarity of women of color in environmental leadership positions, yet the literature on this phenomenon is overshadowed by a deluge of articles on the lack of minorities in any of sci-ence, technology, engineering, or mathematic (STEM) disciplines and the apparent inability in the United States to shift this persistent trend (National Academy of Sciences, 2010). For example, recent reports by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and National Science Foundation (NSF) highlighted a troubling trend—minori-ties were an increasing majority in the U.S. population, and yet the number of minority students entering science disci-plines in the undergraduate level, or those persisting into professional careers, remained disturbingly low. While the general field of biosciences is considered a “medium par-ticipation” field for women at the master’s and bachelor’s levels and the biological sciences for minorities as a whole has risen at the bachelor’s level, minority women are greatly underrepresented by their “share” of master’s or doctorate degrees (NSF, 2011). Further, minority women have higher unemployment rates than White scientists and much lower rates of federal support as faculty than any other group (NSF, 2011). Indeed, underrepresented minor-ity (URM) persistence numbers, defined as the number of students entering college and graduating in a science major, was so low that the NAS referred to a “gathering storm” with the United States at “a crossroads” in the abil-ity to be competitive in the global marketplace (NAS, 2009, 2010).

Is there a shortage of URM students interested in the environmental sciences within the STEM disciplines? Approximately 32,000 students graduate yearly from 184 multicultural eco-high schools located in 29 states (Weintraub, Park, & Jang, 2011). Moreover, in 2007, over 4,200 students of color scored high on the Advanced Placement Environmental Science test, while 2,192 stu-dents of color received degrees in agriculture or natural resources and similar disciplines. This shows that if col-leges were more aggressive in recruiting students of color into their environmental programs—and following this, if environmental organizations used more effective targeted

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recruitment strategies—then the environmental workforce would ultimately be more culturally diverse, populated with ethnic minorities, including women of color. However, anecdotal reports suggest an increased interest by URM students and communities in environmental sustainability and the impacts on communities (Bositis, 2010). Such find-ings suggest that, far from the dire shortage suggested by the demographics of past degrees, many URM students now entering college are interested and engaged in the interdisciplinary approach of sustainability and see great value in the combination of making a difference for human-ity while performing scientific work (Bowser & Brown, 2011).

Color of Leadership

As a young girl growing up in South Carolina, my mother, Estelle Simmons, told me that I could be anything I wanted to be. While these words seem simple, the pronouncement of the words still ignites wonderment and empowers me—I CAN BE ANYTHING. I enjoyed being outdoors and would stay out to play and explore as long as my parents would allow. I would watch the birds in my backyard and wonder why they ate our figs and where they lived. It would rain on one side of the street and not the other and I would wonder why. I would see water that bubbled up from my friend’s backyard aquifer and wonder about the origin of the water. I used to question the who, what, when, where, and why of my surroundings, espe-cially the natural phenomena I observed. Answers were often replaced with follow-up questions. (Denise Simmons)

At the 55th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the overarching discussion was on preparing the world for the impact of a changing climate on vulner-able populations and the need for women in science fields. U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton asked, “How can we address a global problem, using only half of the global intellectual capacity?”—the implication being that there is a lack of trained women scientists in the sci-ences as well as a lack of women’s voices at the climate change negotiation table (Alber, 2010). The NSF’s (2011) recently released decadal report on women in science high-lights some interesting trends. While women have increased their presence in the sciences, there are differences by race where more women of color are entering engineering fields than White women, yet White women still dominate the biological and social sciences. Fields like physics and chemistry, for example, have made remarkable gains in the number of women in graduate programs; however, the number of women in the faculty has been slow to change. In some fields, such as natural resources, entire colleges of natural resources may have only one or two URM students in their graduate program (Bowser, personal observations). Indeed, NSF and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) both reported that women in the faculty ranks do have different experiences,

where women of color are less likely to have spouses in related fields (or in academia at all) and are subsequently more likely to leave the academy for corporate or govern-ment positions at a higher rate than White women (Shirley Malcom, personal communication, 2011).

Why are women of color so rare in environmental fields? A common assessment that women of color hear from their colleagues is that minorities are more engaged with issues such as health care, children, employment issues, or their general community than they are with broad environmental issues. However, two reports high-light different trends. Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Connie Roser-Renouf, and Nicholas Smith in their 2011 report, Six Americas, found that African American women were more likely to be part of the “con-cerned” segment of the population in relationship to global climate change. David A. Bositis (2010) found that African Americans listed environmental and climate change con-cerns high and did not differ significantly from White Americans. Kimberly K. Smith (2007) argues that African American environmentalism traces its roots to an early sense of place and regionalism (pp. 189–200). She also suggests that current African Americans focus on environ-mental justice issues rather than environmental science per se because of “patterns of [current] injustice and blacks struggle against [it]” (p. 190; see also Bullard, 2000). Contemporary African American women reflect personal histories tied to environmentalism and a connection with nature (Dungy, 2009) that is reflective of a shift in environ-mental conscience also seen in URM students and their own concern with climate change (Bowser, 2006). So the connection for women of color to environmentalism does not appear to differ from women as a group, and yet the gap between women of color in environmental leadership persists. White women, in contrast, have reached parity in graduate fields in ecology (and related fields) and in many cases, graduate schools in ecology and natural resources have more White female than White male graduate students (NSF, 2011).

This prompts an exploration of the barriers to women participating in environmental careers or in leadership positions associated with environmental issues. Are envi-ronmental organizations actively and sincerely trying to promote diversity and if not, why not? In this case there is an important distinction between environmental fields associated with ecology, bioscience, social science (e.g., human dimensions of environmental studies), health, and the environmental justice fields. When Robert D. Bullard (2000) first defined environmental justice (EJ), he was exploring the question of why toxic dumps appeared to be located in minority neighborhoods. The resulting EJ move-ment remained strong with the publication of Dumping in Dixie (Bullard, 2000) and the subsequent issuance of Presidential Executive Order 12898 by President Bill Clinton in 1994, which created a foundation for all federal agencies to consider EJ implications associated with their

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7. The Color of Climate–•–63

policies and procedures. However, environmental organi-zations remained detached from the EJ movement; despite widespread attention to this disconnection in the 1990s, many environmental leaders still believed that the organi-zational culture and the documented lack of awareness and support had no impact on recruiting minorities nor created institutional barriers that hindered minority students from succeeding in environmental professions (Armstrong, Berkowitz, Dyer, & Taylor, 2007; Environmental Careers Organization [ECO], 1992; Taylor, 2007). Therefore, a genuinely diverse environmental workforce remained a mere vision, despite the reality that a significant number of minority students had suitable qualifications, interest, and experience to work in environmental jobs and chose not to do so (ECO, 2007). Many of these students went on to engage with the EJ fields as activists, while the staff and boards of environmental organizations continued to seri-ously lack respectable levels of minority participation (Taylor, 2007). Even the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE), despite its diversity policy, has a low minority employee rate, and Taylor (2007, 2008) has revealed that minorities made up a mea-ger 17.2% of the 20,218 workers employed in 243 envi-ronmental organizations.

The word combination “environmental leadership, women, and color (or minority)” defies Internet search engines. The subject of women in leadership roles has been studied for some time, particularly regarding the differences between women and their male counterparts in management style, emotional skills, and charismatic styles (Applebaum, Audet, & Miller, 2003; Groves, 2005; Parker & Ogilvie, 1996). However, the specific question of the challenges faced by women of color in environmental leadership posi-tions has rarely been examined. While women in leadership roles differ from men in their leadership styles, and envi-ronmental organizations tend to have different types of leaders than for-profit organizations (Ergi & Herman, 2000), the question of minorities in environmental leader-ship positions seems woefully understudied. Melissa J. Armstrong et al. (2007), for example, looked at minority persistence in ecological fields from the student perspective and found social and community reasons as the most often cited causes for leaving the field of ecology. Further, Bositis (2010) reported that African Americans have a higher interest in environmental issues than previously reported, with climate change impacts being one of their chief concerns. In contrast, Leiserowitz et al. (2009, 2011) in Six Americas found that for concerns regarding climate change, the largest group of disengaged Americans were exemplified by middle-aged women of color, and they were least informed and unlikely to consider climate change as a priority (Leiserowitz et al., 2011). Given these published perceptions, it is not surprising to find such a small number of women of color in environmental careers and that the path for this group to environmental leadership positions tends to be uniquely different from their White peers.

The Color of Community

My early career path was strewn with colleagues occasionally questioning how I got into this field and what I thought I could really contribute. Hence, even in the area of environ-mental leadership that relates to the human dimensions of natural resource management, I found my status as a woman of color to initially be challenged regarding my abilities to “get the job done.” The persistent lack of understanding for my personal and professional perspectives was frustrating and often ignored. To me, a lack of role models was unfortunate, and the reality is this can send the symbolic message that “people of color don’t belong.” My White peers constantly hired people most like themselves, thereby limiting opportu-nities to even give people of color a chance. Furthermore, my prior work in the area of outdoor and environmental education is a great example of the need to dispel a variety of myths including the environment as being a “White, middle class” domain only. (Nina Roberts)

Almost two decades have passed since Judy Braus (1995) argued that environmental educators needed to include the urban poor and other disadvantaged minorities in the educational activities and framework of their pro-grams (Taylor, 2007). This call for a more diverse repre-sentation among students of the environmental sciences is shared by several important environmental education organizations, including the NAAEE, as well as profes-sionals in the field. All of these groups have instituted initiatives tailored to recruit ethnic minorities into the environmental professions (Baker, 2000; Davis et al., 2002; Hudson, 2001; Jenkins, 2003; Lopez et al., 2006). Yet Taylor (2007) admits that data on diversity in the envi-ronmental field are incomplete and more studies are needed to shed light on the current reality.

In 1990, a letter addressed to 10 influential U.S. envi-ronmental organizations (i.e., “The Big 10”) was published in the New York Times (SouthWest Organizing Project, 1990, p. A20). This letter openly criticized the fact that these organizations had done little to promote diversity in the environmental workforce and blatantly ignored the environmental issues affecting racially diverse communi-ties, such as pollution and industrial waste. This letter was written by activists of color. They called on these organiza-tions to dialogue with professionals of color and other invested minority leaders regarding the environmental cri-sis impacting communities of color and to hire people of color to their staffs and boards of directors (Environmental Justice Resource Center, n.d.). Yet today, women of color are still absent from leadership roles in those same envi-ronmental organizations.

The Color of the Climate

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center is a research facility with a mix of researchers, contractors, students, and staff. After two years in

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an intern position, I applied for a job and was hired. When Human Resources called to offer me the job, they let me know I was the eighth Hispanic hired (of approximately 1,000 employees). At the time, I did not fully understand the com-ment. Later, seeing an employee matrix of males, females, and minorities by pay grade, I knew the one in the column was me. I realized that my job success would be tracked for the rest of my career. But I also knew that record keeping did not define me. My mentoring team members were supportive and never made me feel singled out or uneasy. They helped me transition into the larger corps career community. (Kathleen Perales)

The unspoken rule in Montana was that all African Americans would greet each other as family, knowing the rarity of seeing another black face in that state. One day, an old White Montana rancher said he wanted me to meet someone. As he was so courteous with his unusual request, I followed him out to his ranch truck. He brought from the front seat a toddler, clearly of mixed race, and gravely introduced the child. “This is my grandson,” he said, “I want him to meet someone who looks like him so he knows.” (Gillian Bowser)

“Knowing” is one of the more intangible aspects of dif-fering leadership styles for minority versus majority lead-ers, much less for those who are also women. Women of color in environmental leadership positions know that URM students face struggles that their White colleagues are completely unaware of. Issues can be as simple as understanding that rarity in the workplace can be a burden or as complex as living in nondiverse communities. What are the roles of mentors, communities, and others who sup-ply the support that allows women of color to excel in environmental leadership and to accept that they are the “one” on demographic scorecards? Leadership styles between men and women differ, and multiple studies have explored those differences (Ergi & Herman, 2000; Groves, 2005). Corporations and businesses appear to do a much better job at recruiting women in general; more women of color hold leadership roles in the corporate culture than the oft-perceived “casual” culture of most environmental orga-nizations. Leadership style and persistence within those different cultures are most likely linked and yet women, characterized by more transformative styles of leadership (Parker & Ogilvie, 1996), are still less represented in envi-ronmental organizations as a whole than men (Applebaum et al., 2003; Herring, 2009). In addition, White women who persisted in environmental leadership positions tend to be educated in nonscience disciplines and often come to the leadership position through paths of advocacy (Ergi & Herman, 2000). Data on environmental leadership styles for women of color are highly limited. What exists sug-gests that not only do women of color differ in leadership styles from White women but that within underrepresented minorities there is also a difference in leadership style between Hispanic and African American women, which can sometimes be quite pronounced (Parker & Ogilvie, 1996). Moreover, within the Hispanic community, cultural and national differences contribute as well, and between

Asian and U.S. women, the differences are likewise pro-found (Chaco & Tian, 2011; Montoya, Hardy-Fanta, & Garcia, 2000).

The study of diversity within the workforce has been a longstanding topic of interest to scholars (Herring, 2009; Taylor, 2007). Yet affirmative action programs and equal employment opportunity legislation have clearly not been completely successful in advancing the presence, visibility, and imprint of women and minorities within organizations (Ng, 2008). Diversity management is still a concern of many agencies; however, Eddy S. W. Ng (2008) suggests that top executive support is offered to this cause only when the objectives of the business are correlated with the needs and requests of women and minorities. Ng proposes, in this context, that scholars involved in diversity research bear in mind the strategy-related factors that impact an organization’s choices with respect to diversity in the workplace. Strategic choice reflects the priorities of CEOs, directors, and top organization executives, as well as pro-vides insight into their specific organizational goals. Hence, it is important to delve into the psychological para-digms of diversity management to identify the link between the commitment of leaders and diversity outcomes within an agency, and to determine whether organizations truly make room for women of color in environmental leader-ship positions.

The Climate of Women

Travels to the Dakotas in the 80s allowed me to realize I looked different. I experienced acceptance by Native Americans inviting me to join them for a meal and prejudice by others refusing me hotel accommodations. The first national Corps Natural Resources Management Conference I attended had over 200 participants. The women at the confer-ence organized a ladies’ night out. We all fit in a single van and went out to dinner to discuss job success and challenges. The corps provided experience, education opportunity, and community. The people I worked with became family, not only those at the office but also those I met from across the nation. (Kathleen Perales)

Throughout my professional career, I have benefited from mentors that steered me through difficult situations, offered advice and encouragement, identified opportunities for growth, introduced me to key persons inside and outside of the organization, and explained company culture, appropriate behaviors, attitudes, and protocols. Such relationships gave me a trusted source for professional support, got me more involved in the organization, allowed me to learn more about myself, developed my skills, helped me to become acclimated to organization culture, and built my self-confidence. (Denise Simmons)

Leaders are thinking about climate change in the manage-ment of our natural resources, yet are these same people considering the cultural climate that needs to influence their

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7. The Color of Climate–•–65

decisions? Change is imminent, so how can we make all our collective changes more intentional yet gentle and inclusive? (Nina Roberts)

Women leaders in environmental organizations act as mentors for other women following in their footsteps, but is this mentorship role specific for gender, or is it more ethnically biased in the case of women of color? Only 1.9% of the environmental profession within organizations such as the Sierra Club and the National Audubon Society were represented by ethnic minority employees and even fewer minority women. This, too, was challenged by the letter to the Big 10 as previously mentioned (SouthWest Organizing Project, 1990). The reasons offered by these organizations were that the number of minority applicants for jobs was insufficient, that the qualifications of minori-ties were inadequate for the jobs offered, or that the minor-ity applicants were not satisfied with the low wages paid by these organizations. Nonetheless, these same organiza-tions admitted a desire to reverse the situation and to hire more minorities (Shabecoff, as cited in Baugh, 1991) and women, especially in leadership positions. From then on, discussions at different high-profile conferences and events, as well as articles in industry publications, focused people’s attention on this important issue (Taylor, 2007). In Taylor’s (2007) words, the most important factor that rose from these discussions was that

descriptions of minorities as unconcerned about the environ-ment, ignorant, and unaware of environmental issues no lon-ger went unchallenged. Also contested were the notions that minorities did not want environmental jobs, were unqualified for them, and demanded salaries too high for nonprofit orga-nizations. (p. 21)

This was a turning point when scholars started to study how environmental organizations handled diversity. Despite some commitment toward the process, the envi-ronmental workforce does not yet mirror the increasing racial diversity in America (Weintraub et al., 2011), and the proportion of women of color still remains dreadfully low. The matter of how to make the workforce more cultur-ally diverse is the difficult part (SouthWest Organizing Project, 1990), and it presents a challenge to this day (Bonilla, 2010).

The Climate of Color: Finding and Engaging Community

By the time I joined academia full-time in 2004, my perspec-tive on environmental leadership was from that of environ-mental stewardship informed by experiences in industry. My perspective, at that time, considered climate but not color. Since then, my focus has been on preparing future generations to solve environmental issues and on increasing the science literacy of the public as the director of the Savannah River Environmental Science Field Station (SRESFS), the only

undergraduate environmental sciences field station in the nation. SRESFS has a record of success in producing out-standing minority environmental scientists. I believe my past experiences have prepared me for my current role in increas-ing the involvement of underrepresented groups in science and engineering related careers. As the goal to diversifying the technological workforce is being realized, I now look for-ward to witnessing the color change in the sciences. (Denise Simmons)

I’m the product of parents that sacrificed for their children and an extended family that provided additional support. My Hispanic heritage is at the root of my experience and my career. It is only in reflection that the influence becomes clear. I was raised in a traditional Hispanic household. Education was paramount to my parents, and so was a strong work ethic. They ingrained in me a strong belief in government and ser-vice. My mother’s parents nurtured strong family bonds and a strong independent work ethic. I attended Catholic school from kindergarten through my second year of college. My parents gave me the opportunity to explore dance, music, speech, and travel, which nurtured my independent spirit . (Kathleen Perales)

The first time I sat at a table with more than one other black woman with a degree in ecology or any of the biological sci-ences was not within the United States but at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. I was in a room with 15 black women PhDs—all in the sciences and natural resources. When I commented on the fact that I had never had a black woman professor in my entire undergraduate or graduate career there was general astonishment around the table. (Gillian Bowser)

Oceans are rising, species extinction is rampant, and moun-tain glaciers may cease to exist. As climate chaos strikes the natural world, I’m sensing the climate of justice is in equal upheaval. People I thought were my allies have been threat-ened by my mere presence. And when I long for collaboration, the truth is, my white colleagues would rather maintain power and control. Are scientists acting in time to save our environ-ment? Are professionals and scholars in the field behaving in ways that lead us to progress and not continue to push intel-ligent women of color away? I am often disheartened by the fact change is inescapable yet our leaders would prefer to deny the composition of our collective reality. (Nina Roberts)

The U.S. State Department hosted a workshop on women in science called Changing Mindsets (June 2011), which highlighted the importance of a global community for women. The workshop focused on the priorities of food security, climate change, gender, and the incorporation of these topics into the U.S. positions on negotiating interna-tional environmental treaties. Yet within the United States, those priorities for gender have hardly been met. The cli-mate change community is still dominated by White male scientists, despite the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identifying the need to consider climate impacts on women and vulnerable popu-lations, as well as the importance of scientific voices pro-viding a feminine perspective. Gender mainstreaming, in

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the language of the climate change debates, should refer to including gender as part of the impacts of climate models, scientific voices, vulnerable populations, or unintended victims (Alber, 2010).

The environmental leadership style of women is char-acteristically different from that of men, and White Americans have a leadership style different from other nationalities (Appelbaum et al., 2003; Chaco & Tian, 2011). The dual classification of women of color is dif-ferent yet again, and this should be celebrated in the environmental fields and not ignored (Achor & Morales, 1990; Montoya et al., 2000). Mainstreaming gender may work to increase the advocacy of women in the field of climate change but within environmental organizations there needs to be acknowledgment of the different styles, approaches, and needs that women of color may have. The Latina voice is poorly represented in environmental organizations and the leadership style of Latinas is known to be different from other minority women (Montoya et al., 2000). African American women may be characterized by a leadership style that thrives in the for-profit culture but is not the common style in the environ-mental nonprofit world (Groves, 2005; Parker & Ogilvie, 1996). In contrast, when a community of practice is used, such as in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, even non-diverse organizations can identify and nurture leadership for women of color (Bryson, Perales, Jackson, & Dickerson, 2009; Perales, personal communication). However, there is scant evidence that the environmental professions recognize or embrace these differences and without such acknowledgment there is little hope for substantial change.

The color of climate addresses the need to accept and mentor women of color in science with clear understand-ing that the resultant leadership styles will be different from White women’s. The importance of community and social aspects of transformative leadership are dominant themes in the personal backgrounds of the authors, and these individual voices highlight the common experiences despite cultural differences. Studies of White women in leadership roles often cite academic mentors or learning the leadership styles of White men. In contrast, women of

color initially share the need for community to explore environmental fields, while their different styles of leader-ship may impact their persistence in those same fields. The lessons learned from the personal comments shared here point not to aptitude in science but to a supportive family and community. The mythical separation of communities of color from the natural world appears artificial and yet seems to play a part in contributing to the lack of women of color in environmental leadership positions. W. E. B. Du Bois argued against primitivism and celebrated the bioregional connections as part of Black heritage and a long historical connection to nature and environmental issues (Dungy, 2009). Yet today, the most common mantra cited by environmental organizations is that urbanism separates minorities from the wilderness.

Summary

The growth of racial minorities in the field of environmen-tal science will ultimately depend on political ideology, cultural awareness of decision makers, and the varied per-spectives they hold about race and gender. If support for values of diversity is correctly assessed by the voices in this chapter, then environmental organizations need to exponentially improve how they operate in the future. America is indisputably becoming more ethnically diverse and there need to be more opportunities for women of color in environmental leadership. In closing, as lead author, I reflect on my own history as a Brooklyn native who grew up with a small dirt garden broken into the con-crete as “wilderness.” I went on to become a wildlife biologist tracking elk and moose in the most wild areas in the United States despite that urban beginning, and I still find myself challenging environmental organizations that quote urban heritage as the explanation for the lack of diversity within the ranks of environmental scientists (Bowser, 2006). My coauthors and I still dream of the day when a professional scientist woman of color, tracking wild animals in our national parks, is not as startlingly rare as a grizzly bear observing a tourist watching an airplane at dawn in Yellowstone National Park.

References and Further Readings

Achor, S., & Morales, A. (1990). Chicanas holding doctorate degrees: Social reproduction and cultural ecological approaches. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 21, 269–287.

Alber, G. (2010). Statement on the behalf of Gender and Climate Change (GenderCC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [Press release], Cancun, Mexico.

Applebaum, S. H., Audet, L., & Miller, J. C. (2003). Gender and leadership? Leadership and gender? A journey through the

landscape of theories. Leadership and Organization Development Journal , 24 (1), 48–51.

Armstrong, M. J., Berkowitz, A. R., Dyer, L. A., & Taylor, J. (2007). Understanding why underrepresented students pursue ecology careers: A preliminary case study. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 5 , 415–420.

Baker, B. (2000). Recruiting minorities to the biological sciences. BioScience, 50(3), 191–195.

Baugh, J. A. (1991). African-Americans and the environment: A review essay. Policy Studies Journal , 19 (2), 182–191.

Bonilla, J. (2010). Making “green” organizations multicultural: Debunking the myths about people of

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color. International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change, 9, 127–138.

Bositis, D. A. (2010). Opinion of African Americans on climate change and 2010 midterm elections: The results of a multi-state poll . Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Bowser, G. (2006, July). Women in science: A commentary. Southeastern Biology, 53 .

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