IALE-North America Newsletter

SPRING 2021 | VOLUME 36

The IALE-North America Newsletter is a biannual publication containing updates on the industry, the Association, and the Annual Meeting. Previously, the newsletter was in PDF format (view the archives). Beginning in the Fall of 2017, the Newsletter highlights are emailed to our subscribers (join our mailing list) and the complete newsletter can be viewed online here. 
IN THIS ISSUE: 

​President’s Message

Dear landscape ecology community,

Now that 2020 is behind us, we can reflect on the two momentous events of that year: the coronavirus pandemic and the racial justice movement. IALE-North America showed its collective spirit in its response to each of these. First came pivoting to convert our annual meeting from in-person to virtual, a momentous achievement that was done in only a matter of weeks. Then came the development and initial implementation of action items to support equity, inclusion, and diversity. These were collaborative efforts that have provided us with tremendous opportunities for growth. I am honored to be associated with such a great organization and excited to witness how we are making lemonade from the lemons that 2020 gave us. 
Although we will again meet virtually this year, the year 2021 brings us new hope that we will be able to gather together again soon. Until then, please stay safe. See you all (virtually) at our annual meeting in April!
Sincerely,

Nancy McIntyre
President, IALE-North America
Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-3131 USA
nancy.mcintyre@ttu.edu

2021 Meeting Update: Reno/Virtual Meeting

Can you believe that we are less than two weeks away from the IALE-NA 2021 (Reno) Virtual Meeting? We’ve got 299 presentations (oral or poster), 14 symposia, and 5 workshops lined up with at least 10 countries represented, as well as a terrific slate of plenary speakers. And as much as we wish we could be welcoming you to the beloved Reno/Tahoe region, I’m genuinely excited about the virtual experience that is in store, thanks to great work by Leslie at Delaney and the rest of team. Some of these new approaches and tools may actually make the meeting more accessible than ever and will likely stick around after the pandemic subsides. We will be using a combination of Zoom for livestreams and an event platform called Whova to bring everything together in a handy way – agenda with links to join, info on sessions and ways to participate, posters, sponsors, networking tools, and more. We designed the schedule to be friendly to both east and west coasts and are spreading into five days to minimize long-day burnout. Now that I’ve convinced any remaining fence-sitters and motivated the procrastinators, get thee to our registration page and join us!  

Tom Albright and the 2021 Reno Host Committee

Student News & Notes 

Students, please join us April 11 - 16 for the virtual remote conference! This year’s fully-online conference will include several student-specific opportunities for networking, feedback and development. Below, we highlight a few of the events we’re most excited about!
  • Student-Mentor Virtual Networking Event - Students will be matched with mentors with similar research interests, career goals and backgrounds in online breakout rooms. Please indicate your interest in participating during registration. 
  • Student social and student-specific channels during the conference- our conference platform for IALE-NA 2021 includes a channel specifically for students.
  • Student discounts for conference workshops - Registered student members of IALE-NA will be able to participate in one conference workshop for free. Workshop sign-up occurs during registration. 

Consider running for Graduate Student Representative!

This year, we will elect new Graduate Student Representatives to the IALE-North America Executive Committee. Graduate Student Representatives have full voting privileges within the Executive Committee, participate in governance meetings remotely and at upcoming annual conferences, and assist in planning student activities with the conference host committees. We especially encourage graduate students who are citizens of North American countries other than the United States to run. More information about these roles will be given during the Student Social event.

If you are interested in representing your fellow graduate students, please contact the current representatives Kate Hayes (katherine.hayes@ucdenver.edu) or Caitlin Cunningham (caitlin.cunningham@dal.ca) before the end of this virtual remote conference. Voting will take place shortly after the conference. 

We look forward to “seeing” you at IALE - North America 2021!

Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Committee Update

The Equity, Inclusion and Diversity committee has been busy implementing priority action items identified by our membership during last year’s conference. We have prepared a draft strategic plan that is in internal review, and will be open for comments during our virtual conference in April. We have started a mentoring program http://www.ialena.org/mentoring.html, which is off to a strong start. We have also received funding for a new Diversity Virtual Travel Award http://www.ialena.org/diversity-travel-award.html to provide funding to attend this year’s virtual conference, and we have received several strong applicants. 

Communications Committee Update

One initiative the communication committee has taken on is to try to create press releases of all of the “Distinguished” Award winners each year. We work to try to get those out in the local media and employer newsletters of the winners – partly to help celebrate our distinguished colleagues, but also to profile IALE-North America as a society.

Last year, between COVID and the fact that the communications committee chair was also Program Chair of the Toronto/Virtual Meeting meant we didn’t get all of the press releases out. However, this year, we’re compensating by doing a reversal of the practice! It is our pleasure to share a press release that highlights the achievements of one of our active members (past member of the Awards Committee, the Nominating Committee, and others) – Dr. Todd Lookingbill. Todd was recently recognized with the State Council of Higher Education Outstanding Faculty Award. This is the highest faculty honor in the state of Virginia’s private and public colleges and universities. You can read more here: https://bit.ly/UR-Lookingbill-SCHEV-Award

Our committee would love to have some new members. If you are interested in fostering communications about landscape ecology both within and beyond IALE-NA, please contact the committee chair, Dr. Yolanda Wiersma (ywiersma <at> mun.ca) 

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