Tinker, tailor, scientist, advocate!

Abstract

A new initiative by the Ecological Society of America (ESA), the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, is designed to train environmental scientists to be effective communicators of their research in the public and political arena. Each cohort of 20 Aldo Leopold leadership fellows meets twice in their first year. Over the next five years, the program is designed to train an initial group of 60 ecologists, and environmental and conservation biologists. The roots of the program go back to the ESAs Sustainable Biosphere Initiative (SBI)4xThe sustainable biosphere initiative (an ecological research agenda) . Lubchenco, J. et al. Ecology. 1991; 72: 371–412CrossrefSee all References4. During the development of the SBI, Jane Lubchenco (Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA) and Hal Mooney (Stanford University, CA, USA) realized there was a major need to train ecologists in the skills they would need to communicate with the press, their local and national politicians, and above all the public.A primary goal of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program is to expand the communication skills of its fellows and raise the intellectual standard of the public dialogue on the environment. The fellows will be taught how to work with politicians, industrialists and the media, to develop environmental policies that are good for both the environment and long-term economic health.The Aldo Leopold Leadership Program was initiated by a ‘Pew Conservation Scholars Award’ to Jane Lubchenco. The full program is administered by ESA with a generous $1.5 million grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Complete details of the program can be obtained at their website (www.leopold.orst.edu). At the first meeting in June 1999 the fellows were introduced to techniques to expand their communication repertoire, were taught how to develop connections with other communities and were given inside glimpses of other intellectual cultures (e.g. journalists and the media). In September 1999, the first cohort of fellows assembled in Washington, and spent a week learning and absorbing the process of policy making. Breakout sessions at both meetings allowed them to examine ways in which they can polish their leadership and communication skills, while also providing practical guidance on career juggling.The founders of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program hope that the training provided to the fellows will not only thicken their skins, but will also provide them with a podium to amplify their voices in the public and political arena. It is an imaginative and much needed initiative that deserves to be widely emulated.