As a field ecologist in grad school, I used science as a way to get out and see the world: to meet new people, learn about different cultures, and see some of the most wild and untouched pieces of the planet. After finishing my PhD, I moved to Costa Rica and led groups of 30 students around remote field stations. I taught them the nuts and bolts of science: observation and asking creative questions. Eventually I got the itch to get back into research and began a project on mercury accumulation due to gold mining in different bat species in the Amazon basin. While catching bats alone in the jungle at night, I would hear the miners hunting, and could see their tent camps from the riverbank. This is when I realized that gold mining wasn’t just a problem for bats. Gold mining affects everything. It affected the women trafficked into transient camps as sex workers, the kids who worked instead of going to school, and the people with health problems from mercury poisoning. The problem was, I wanted my research to be seen not only by other scientists, but also by policymakers and the local community - the people actually affected by the mining. I wanted my research to be more impactful.
Results/Conclusions
That’s when I decided to move to Washington, DC. To learn how science and research is used in policy. To see how to influence people to pay attention to data. To understand how science works for people and our planet. Working in the US government as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow, then a Democracy Fellow at the U.S. Agency for International Development, has been very different than doing field research. Yet, I have learned essential skills to help data get used to drive change. I have worked directly with ministries of science and technology to write evidence based policy to combat climate related problems. I have met with Ambassadors to explain why biodiversity is essential for human health. I have helped a country write their science policy. I learned that partnerships, diplomacy, and network building are also essential parts of being an impactful leader in science and science policy.