Emily A
- Research Program Mentor

PhD candidate at University of Wisconsin - Madison

Expertise

Environmental science and sustainability, management, governance, and policy. Conservation, social science, writing. Decision-making, project management, strategic planning, and evaluation. Science communication, data management, NGOs/ nonprofits, philosophy of science, research process and methods.

Bio

Hello future mentee! I'm Emily. I'm passionate about the ways we connect to the environment and the people around us. I love making science and research fun, interesting, and accessible for all. I mostly work with watersheds as a main focus for my graduate work. I'm interested in them because they inherently connect people to the lands, waters, and animals and remind us we are part of a collective whole. I love to spend my free time cooking vegetarian food, thrifting for books, watching youtube, and walking on the trails by my house. My favorite childhood tv show is spongebob squarepants. A cool fact about me is that I am the first person in my family to get an advanced degree!

Project ideas

Project ideas are meant to help inspire student thinking about their own project. Students are in the driver seat of their research and are free to use any or none of the ideas shared by their mentors.

Communicating Science!

Let's craft a communication piece for a general audience on a environmental topic of your choice. Skills you will get to practice include reading and making sense of scientific articles, writing for a general audience. Outcome products could include a blog post, podcast, video, brochure, webpage, GIS story map or other product student is interested in.

Literature review or research paper on an environmental topic of your choice!

Say you were interested in how climate change impacts amphibians in the Northeast US. We could then work together to review and summarize the major findings in the scientific literature, paying attention to scientific writing skills.

Teaching experience

I have served as a teaching assistant for undergraduate, graduate courses ranging from 8-120 students for the past 2 years. In these roles, I grade and give feedback on student assignments. I interact regularly with students, hold office hours, answer clarifying questions about course expectations, assignments, and help advocate for them whenever possible. I also directly supervised 1 student for 1 year for a research project on watershed governance. This student worked on skills like transcribing interviews, project management, data management, descriptive statistics, and summarizing literature. In these roles, I help provide unique strategies for student success including setting goals, expectations, deadlines. Above all, I center encouragement and skill development. Quantitative - GIS (spatial) data collection, management, analysis. Qualitative - document analysis, interpreting surveys, interviews. Writing research papers - identifying and interpreting relevant literature, communicating to tailored audiences. Environmental data collection and interpretation (ex. habitat assessments, water quality and streamflow)

Credentials

Work experience

Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies - UW Madison (2022 - Current)

Teaching Assistant

Forestry and Wildlife Ecology - UW Madison (2020 - 2022)

Research Assistant

The Natural Resources Foundation - Madison, WI (2019 - 2020)

Conservation Programs Assistant

Gallatin River Task Force (2016 - 2019)

Water conservation prorgam coordinator

Education

University of Massachusetts at Amherst

BS Bachelor of Science (2015)

Natural resources conservation

University of Wisconsin - Madison

MS Master of Science (2020)

Environmental conservation

University of Wisconsin - Madison

PhD Doctor of Philosophy candidate

Environment and Resources

Completed Projects

Uniting Against Climate-Induced Natural Disasters, Such as Displacement, Reproductive Health Challenges, and Violence, on Marginalized Women Through Women’s Empowerment, Education, and Leadership