2023 Candidate Angee Doerr

Angee Doerr
Assistant Professor of Practice
Oregon Sea Grant/Oregon State University

Candidate for: Member of the Governing Board

I am an interdisciplinary ecologist, studying the intersection and human and natural systems, predominately in marine environments. I have a PhD in Ecology from University of California, Davis, and worked for several years as a Research Scientist with Stanford University’s Center for Ocean Solutions before transitioning to my current position as an Assistant Professor of Practice with Oregon State University / Oregon Sea Grant. I have studied, and continue to work on, marine ecology, human ecology, and social-ecological systems. I have been a member of ESA for more than ten years, and in this time I have served as Vice and Chair of the Early Career Section, been an active, contributing member of the Human Ecology Section, and am a member of several other ESA Sections. I am currently on ESA’s Publications Committee, and have served as a Search Chair for the Editor-in-Chief of ESA Journals. I am also a Subject Matter Editor for Ecological Applications.  Outside of ESA, I serve on several committees within Oregon State University, including the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, focusing on gender equity issues at the University level, as well as the diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and accessibility (DEIJA) committees for my academic department and for Oregon Sea Grant. In these roles, I have worked to improve access to resources for traditionally underserved students, staff, faculty, and community members. I recently completed two years as an Early Career Liaison to the National Academies of Science Ocean Board, focusing on the US Ocean Decade (analog to UN Ocean Decade), and was asked (and accepted) to stay on to serve on the planning committee for upcoming “An Equitable and Inclusive Ocean” workshops.

What interests, experience or skills would you bring to this position?

I have taken a circuitous route to my current position, and that influences my priorities and my areas of focus for engagement. I attended college on a military scholarship, seeking a way to pay for school. I then served nearly eight years on Active Duty, completing a Masters of Business Administration while with the Navy, before electing to leave Active Duty and return to school. My experiences led me to study marine social-ecological systems, rather than straight marine ecology as I’d intended, having seen how interdependent human and natural systems are throughout the world. As a non-traditional student, I also found I could play a role in supporting other students and early career scientists, being both in those positions, while also having a louder ‘voice,’ given my age and lived experiences. My current position, as Extension Faculty with Oregon Sea Grant, facilities my studying and supporting the sustainability of interwoven social and ecological systems, such as fisheries, aquaculture, offshore energy, and the management of marine species. As I transition towards a mid-career ecologist, in a unique academic/non-academic career, I want to ensure the disparate voices, backgrounds, interests, and professional pathways of ESA’s membership are being heard and represented.

How would you support ESA’s mission? How would you plan to promote DEIJ in ESA membership and activities if elected?

As Chair of ESA’s Early Career section, I had the fortune of attending a Governing Board meeting. Despite efforts by ESA to become more inclusive, I found the leading voices on the Board fairly uniform, comprised largely of tenured faculty members, studying similar areas of ecology, predominately older, straight, white men. While I cannot represent all the diversity ESA needs in its leadership, I have spent much of my life in careers dominated by people who do not represent me. I hid relationships in the military because of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. I was told not to report sexual harassment because I’d get labeled a troublemaker.  I was told we lose women in the pipeline from undergraduates to faculty because women have “other priorities”. And I’ve been told Early Career Scientists need to earn a seat at the table rather than feel one is owed to them. I have learned that these statements are not facts, but rather mechanisms to slow change, keeping the same voices at the forefront. If elected, I will push back on excuses such as these, raise new voices, and push ESA to embrace diversity – in all forms –  in order to continue to strengthen and grow.