Ecological Society of America Announces New Appointments to Governing Board
November 13, 2018
For Immediate Release
Contact: Alison Mize, 202-833-8773, gro.asenull@nosila
The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is proud to announce the election results of its Governing Board Members. Those selected by the membership to serve are President Elect for 2020 Kathleen Weathers, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies; Vice-President for Science Diane Pataki, University of Utah; Secretary Jessica Gurevitch, Stony Brook University, who was re-elected for a second term; and Member-at-Large Jacquelyn Gill, University of Maine.
“Year after year, I am impressed at the level of experience and dedication of ESA members who are willing to step forward to run for our Board,” said Laura Huenneke, president of ESA. “We have a very strong leadership foundation in place and our newly elected Board members will continue in this tradition when their appointments begin in August 2019. The deep professional expertise and passionate commitment to the science of ecology of these colleagues will bring new and insightful perspectives to our Board.”
President Elect for 2020 Kathleen Weathers is a senior scientist and the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Chair of Ecology at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., where she focuses on freshwater ecosystems. Weathers’ volunteer and professional service commitments are extensive. She has chaired the External Advisory Board of the Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, the Executive Committee of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program, the Gordon Research Conference on Catchment Science, and the Steering Committee of the Global Ecological Observatory Network. Her dedicated service to ESA includes formerly serving on the ESA Public Affairs Committee, and she is the recipient of ESA’s 2017 Eugene P. Odum Award for Excellence in Ecology Education.
Vice President for Science for the term of 2019-2022, Diane Pataki is an ecologist who studies the role of vegetation in the functioning of cities. She serves in many roles at University of Utah as professor in the Department of Biology with adjunct appointments in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning and the Ecology Center and Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning. Pataki’s work has spanned the impacts of climate change on ecosystems, urban carbon dioxide emissions, and the impacts of urban vegetation on local climate, pollution and hydrology. She serves on the National Science Foundation’s Biological Advisory Committee.
Jessica Gurevitch, professor at Stony Brook University, will serve as Secretary for the term of 2019-2022. She has broad interests in plant ecology and statistical applications in ecology, particularly in research synthesis and meta-analysis. She has conducted both experimental and quantitative measurement studies to address fundamental questions about plant populations and communities. Additionally, Gurevitch has co-authored and co-edited several books, including Design and Analysis of Ecological Experiments, The Ecology of Plants, and Handbook of Meta-analysis in Ecology and Evolution.
Jacquelyn Gill, Member-at-Large for the term 2019-2021, is assistant professor of Paleoecology & Plant Ecology at the School of Biology & Ecology and the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine. She is an ecologist and biogeographer interested in how landscapes change through space and time, and how our understanding of the past can help prepare us for the future. She also writes about academia, diversity in STEM, and science communication.
“We thank the many loyal and dedicated ESA members who participated in the election to select the Board leaders, who guide the Society’s work to advance the science of ecology,” said Catherine O’Riordan, executive director of ESA. “ESA members believe in the power of their peers to steer the ecological profession in a positive direction.”
The current ESA Governing Board Members are President for 2018 Laura Huenneke, Emeritus Professor, Northern Arizona University; President-Elect for 2019 Osvaldo Sala, Professor, Arizona State University; Immediate Past-President Richard Pouyat, U.S. Forest Service (retired); Vice President for Science Jayne Belnap, Research Ecologist, USGS; Vice President for Finance Evan DeLucia, Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Vice President for Public Affairs Frank Davis, Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara; Secretary, Jessica Gurevitch, Professor, Stony Brook University; Member-at-Large Manuel Morales, Professor, Williams College; Member-at-Large Gillian Bowser, Research Scientist, Colorado State University; and Member-at-Large Kathleen Treseder, Professor, University of California, Irvine.
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The Ecological Society of America (ESA), founded in 1915, is the world’s largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 9,000 member Society publishes five journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach, and education initiatives. The Society’s Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in the science of ecology. Visit the ESA website at https://www.esa.org.