IALE-North America Newsletter
FALL 2021 | VOLUME 36.2
IN THIS ISSUE:
President’s Message
|
Dear landscape ecology community,
Autumn is my favorite season: it brings positive changes to the weather (the Texas heat finally releases its iron grip) and the scenery (fall colors). I am also excited to announce some positive changes in IALE-North America. First, please help me in welcoming our new Student Representative, Payton Phillips! She is a Ph.D. student at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA), working in the area of landscape genetics, especially as it relates to disease ecology, with a focus on Lyme Disease. Second, the Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Committee has finished a five-year strategic plan with action items on how to increase organizational capacity to implement and sustain programs to support diversity, build a more diverse and representative membership, increase opportunities and recognition for members of all backgrounds, and champion participation at all levels in our organization. This document was based on comments and feedback from you all and is an exemplar of how much we rely on member engagement. In addition to the work by the Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Committee, our other standing and ad-hoc committees were also at work keeping us running smoothly. Many of these committees work behind the scenes, only being recognized at our annual conference, but without them working throughout the year, trust me—you’d notice! A list of committees can be found on our website at http://www.ialena.org/committees.html. I urge every one of the members of IALE-North America to engage with these committees, or in developing new ones to address any emerging wants/needs. To get involved, please send me an email at nancy.mcintyre@ttu.edu. The Executive Committee and I would be grateful. Finally, a topic that’s on everyone’s mind is the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Given the recent and rapid spread of the delta variant, IALE-North America is keeping a close eye on COVID-19 as we continue preparations for our annual meeting next spring in Riverside, California. We are currently continuing with an in-person meeting as planned but are prepared to shift to a virtual format if necessary. The call for abstracts is now open. As we get ready for the annual meeting this is also a great time to renew your IALE-North America membership for 2022. In the meantime, please continue to take precautions to keep yourselves and others safe, and I hope autumn is a good season for all of us. Sincerely, Nancy McIntyre President, IALE-North America Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-3131 USA nancy.mcintyre@ttu.edu |
2022 Meeting Update: Riverside, California
The Riverside, CA Host Committee of IALE – North America's 2022 Annual Meeting is looking forward to hosting the event in person, March 27-31! The theme of the 2022 conference is “Equity, Inclusion, and Landscapes of Change” and highlights will include:
- Workshop on Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity
- Social Event Focused on Inclusion
- Three engaging Plenaries:
- Anne Marie Chischilly, Interim Vice President for the Office of Native American Initiatives, Northern Arizona University
- Alexandra D. Syphard, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Vertus Wildlife Insurance Services
- Cindy Montañez, CEO, TreePeople
- All of the features of the meeting you normally look forward to:
- Poster Session
- Student/Mentor Lunch
- Networking Events
- Workshops
- Symposia
- Scientific Excursions
Student News & Notes
Hello from the IALE-North America Student Representatives, Caitlin Cunningham and Payton Phillips! IALE-NA has a strong tradition of supporting students at the annual meeting and our second ever fully remote IALE-NA meeting was no exception. The meeting brought together 149 students, along with 221 researchers and professionals from across the continent and beyond. Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s meeting and a warm welcome to the students new to IALE-NA!
Although we still miss some of our traditional student activities from when we gather in person, including our annual walking tour and student social, our second fully virtual conference produced some creative ways to network and build connections within our landscape ecology community. This included the student-mentor lunch held over Zoom. We had 140 attendees sign up and students were able to choose from 20 different breakout rooms based on their research interests and career goals. Thanks to all who participated!
Following the meeting, we held an election for the new student representative. The votes came in, and Payton Phillips was elected as our incoming student representative. Payton is a PhD student at Temple University. Her work centers on Lyme disease ecology and landscape genetics along an urban to rural gradient. She obtained a master’s from Central Michigan University and an undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary where she worked on a variety of conservation and landscape-ecology projects. Congratulations to Payton and thank you to the other candidates for running!
As the 2022 annual meeting approaches, keep your eyes out for additional information regarding electing your next IALE-NA Student Representative. As we embark on our third year as IALE-NA and look forward to meeting in Riverside, we are specifically asking students who are citizens of Canada, Mexico, or another non-United States country in the continent of North America to run for student representative. We will be officially seeking nominations at the Riverside meeting to replace outgoing representative Caitlin as she finishes her 2-year term. Student representatives serve as voting members on the executive IALE-NA board, representing the best interests of the broader students of landscape ecology. Each serves for a 2-year term, with the newly-elected representative overlapping with the current representative. If you’ve enjoyed student activities in the past meetings, want to get more engaged in your professional organization, and/or want more opportunities to network and shape the IALE-NA student activities, this is your chance!
In closing, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any feedback on student activities or involvement with IALE-NA. And share your landscape ecology successes with us on Facebook or Twitter, so we can celebrate how awesome our students are!
Your Student Representatives,
Caitlin Cunningham and Payton Phillips
Although we still miss some of our traditional student activities from when we gather in person, including our annual walking tour and student social, our second fully virtual conference produced some creative ways to network and build connections within our landscape ecology community. This included the student-mentor lunch held over Zoom. We had 140 attendees sign up and students were able to choose from 20 different breakout rooms based on their research interests and career goals. Thanks to all who participated!
Following the meeting, we held an election for the new student representative. The votes came in, and Payton Phillips was elected as our incoming student representative. Payton is a PhD student at Temple University. Her work centers on Lyme disease ecology and landscape genetics along an urban to rural gradient. She obtained a master’s from Central Michigan University and an undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary where she worked on a variety of conservation and landscape-ecology projects. Congratulations to Payton and thank you to the other candidates for running!
As the 2022 annual meeting approaches, keep your eyes out for additional information regarding electing your next IALE-NA Student Representative. As we embark on our third year as IALE-NA and look forward to meeting in Riverside, we are specifically asking students who are citizens of Canada, Mexico, or another non-United States country in the continent of North America to run for student representative. We will be officially seeking nominations at the Riverside meeting to replace outgoing representative Caitlin as she finishes her 2-year term. Student representatives serve as voting members on the executive IALE-NA board, representing the best interests of the broader students of landscape ecology. Each serves for a 2-year term, with the newly-elected representative overlapping with the current representative. If you’ve enjoyed student activities in the past meetings, want to get more engaged in your professional organization, and/or want more opportunities to network and shape the IALE-NA student activities, this is your chance!
In closing, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any feedback on student activities or involvement with IALE-NA. And share your landscape ecology successes with us on Facebook or Twitter, so we can celebrate how awesome our students are!
Your Student Representatives,
Caitlin Cunningham and Payton Phillips
IALE-NA EID Strategic Plan Announcement
IALE-NA just finalized and approved its Strategic Plan for Equity, Inclusion and Diversity (EID). This plan includes both short-term goals and a long term vision to expand equity, promote inclusion, increase diversity and build capacity to sustain efforts beyond the 5-year plan horizon. Action items are organized around a set of objectives and four overarching goals. The action items came from IALE-NA membership input, feedback and comments on earlier drafts. The plan is meant to be a living document, and each year the IALE-NA EID committee will track accomplishments toward meeting goals and objectives. The plan was completed by EID committee members Kelly Green Guilbeau, Sandra Haire, David Bell, Kusum Naithani, Sophie Taddeo, Li An, Kristin Braziunas, Georgina Sanchez, and Chair Kristin Byrd.
Communications Committee Update
IALE-NA LISTSERV is no more – but never fear, we have a plan!
Before there was Twitter, Slack, Zulip, and Facebook, in fact before there was Windows based software on desktops, and in the earliest days of the internet, there was something called the LISTSERV. Frequently mis-spelled, LISTSERV is actually a network program for mailing out information to large groups of people (for a lovely little reflection on the joy of LISTSERVs, see this piece from Slate: https://slate.com/technology/2010/08/the-listserv-one-of-the-internet-s-earliest-innovations-is-still-one-of-its-best.html).
The North American chapter of IALE has been communicating within and between members via a LISTSERV hosted at the University of Rhode Island, and initially set up by Pete August in ~1994. Upon Pete’s retirement from URI in 2018, Jeff Hollister took up the behind-the-scenes management of the LISTSERV. We would like to take this moment to acknowledge publicly our appreciation to both Pete and Jeff for their contributions to this important communication platform. The main LISTSERV allowed members to post job notices, graduate positions, advertise conferences/papers/workshops, etc. and sub-LISTSERVS facilitated Unfortunately URI is phasing out support for LISTSERVs. However, we have a plan to transition the membership on the list to Google Groups, so that we can keep this widespread communication between members.
This November, you may have noticed a notification that you were added to the ialena-l Google groups. This process is ongoing but will be complete before the early December when the URI LISTSERV is shut down. After that date, you will need to use ialena-l@googlegroups.com to reach IALENA members. Look for some additional communications from Jeff via the old LISTSERV and the new Google Groups.
The North American chapter of IALE has been communicating within and between members via a LISTSERV hosted at the University of Rhode Island, and initially set up by Pete August in ~1994. Upon Pete’s retirement from URI in 2018, Jeff Hollister took up the behind-the-scenes management of the LISTSERV. We would like to take this moment to acknowledge publicly our appreciation to both Pete and Jeff for their contributions to this important communication platform. The main LISTSERV allowed members to post job notices, graduate positions, advertise conferences/papers/workshops, etc. and sub-LISTSERVS facilitated Unfortunately URI is phasing out support for LISTSERVs. However, we have a plan to transition the membership on the list to Google Groups, so that we can keep this widespread communication between members.
This November, you may have noticed a notification that you were added to the ialena-l Google groups. This process is ongoing but will be complete before the early December when the URI LISTSERV is shut down. After that date, you will need to use ialena-l@googlegroups.com to reach IALENA members. Look for some additional communications from Jeff via the old LISTSERV and the new Google Groups.
Stay in Touch!
- Website: www.ialena.org
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/ialenorthamerica
- Twitter: @iale_na
- IALE Website: www.landscape-ecology.org
- IALE Current Newsletter: www.landscape-ecology.org/services/publications/iale-bulletin/new-iale-bulletin-out-now.html