Adding More Professional Development for Ecologists

Posted by Jon Miller on October 4, 2023

We are very excited to be adding new value to ESA membership for this coming year.

In May, the Governing Board approved a plan to support programming geared toward the career development—scientific, practical and aspirational—of ecologists. A portion of our budget spent off proceeds from the strategic reserve now enables us to develop virtual content opportunities on a wide range of topics. Our first workshop offered under this program is We Snooze, You Lose! Integrating Humor and Authenticity into Your Scientific Talks. Over the next several months, you can expect to see options available in webinar, workshop and course-length offerings that range from career navigation to hard skills like R and ArcGIS.

Our goal is to be a resource for the professional development of members and other ecologists in our community, at all career levels, providing affordable options while sustainably supporting the program’s continuity. Many of these sessions will be free or very low-cost to members, and in cases where the instructor has requested a participation cap, we will be setting aside space so students can join. The fee structure is set up to ensure that we can provide adequate compensation to trainers while covering staff time, software and other logistics, eventually to include a learning management system as the library of content offerings becomes sufficiently robust.

To ensure that we are providing high-quality offerings, we will be working with our section and chapter leaders and other societies in allied sciences, and have formed an Industry Advisory Council to strategically align content with the professional development needs of ecologists in all career sectors. We especially seek to align content with our certification’s continuing education requirements.

We want this program to meet your needs, so if there are particular topics you’d like to see us offer virtually, fill out this form.

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The Ecological Society of America is a community of 9,000 scientists, researchers, decision makers, policy managers, and educators who are dedicated to understanding life on earth. We are an advocate for ecology and a voice for ecologists. ESA strengthens connections within and outside our community to support your work and promotes ecological science. As our discipline expands its boundaries with new ideas, new experimental tools, and the recruitment of young scientists, we hope you will join us!