Human Dimensions: Communication and Engagement, Where Ecology and Human Dimensions Meet

As an ecologist who sometimes struggled with seeing ESA as my home professional society, I (K. Schwarz) credit the ESA Communication and Engagement (C&E) Section with pulling me back into the fold. I first came across the section when looking for content while developing a science communication and storytelling course at my home institution. The discovery of the C&E Web site unearthed a treasure trove of resources. However, it was not until my research shifted more intently to community-led design as a solution to environmental inequity that I fully engaged with the section. Once I did, I found a community of ecologists and science communication professionals who were passionate about, and skilled in, the best ways to share our science and collaboratively find solutions to our most pressing environmental issues. My involvement (K. Schwarz) with the section has been a great way to engage with the ESA membership more broadly and my favorite way to do that is through our #SketchYourScience activity at the annual meeting. Countless members wander over, nearly all intrigued and often intimidated to put pen to paper. Almost every time their hesitation subsides, and they end up creating something compelling. After all, communication and engagement is not only about creating an engaging visual, or knowing how to distill your message; it starts with a willingness to share your love of science. That pulls us in every time. To me, these experiences really sum up the best of the C&E Section; yes, we are a great resource, a carefully curated list of the best that SciComm has to offer. But, beyond that, we are a community. Nearly everything we do as a section aims to support individuals in the science communication and engagement work they do or want to try. Effective communication of our science and broader engagement in the process is not only about improving the reach of our work, but also about making ecology more inclusive and using scientific approaches to enhance our engagement efforts. While a science communication career is not the goal for every ecologist, communication and engagement is essential to ecology, and ecologists in all career types are valuable in leadership and membership roles in ESA. We offer support for people working toward these goals by (1) resource sharing (e.g., Resource of the Week Series; Advancing Eco-Comm Through Multimedia Resource Guide1 ), (2) providing a space for individuals to share their stories (e.g., #MySciComm Series), (3) contributing to the Communicating Science2 section in ESA's oldest journal, The Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, and (4) launching two awards (new in 2020) that recognize the intellectual, scientific, and civic contributions made by ESA members active in public engagement and science communication. We produce a monthly newsletter that highlights our section's news, communication, and engagement resources, and posts from our blog (see notes at end of article for subscription link). The newsletter also provides section members with an opportunity to highlight the SciComm and engagement work they do. Beyond the section, we coordinate training and networking activities at ESA annual meetings. Year-round, we actively seek opportunities to collaborate with other ESA sections whose work falls within the realm of human dimensions and making science accessible. You can find more details about our section's current activities3 on our Web site. Our work as a section emerged from a moment many ESA members will recognize. At the ESA 2013 Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, I (B.G. Merkle) was new to ESA. Over the course of the conference, I noticed a few people were regularly asking questions and making comments about issues that were also important to me. After one particular set of talks, several of us collected around Clarisse Hart. We struck up an animated, all-talking-at-once conversation about some of the challenges highlighted by numerous talks: (1) Students and early-career ecologists were not receiving effective training in skills essential for running community-engaged research (e.g., running meetings, organizing and establishing partnerships, connecting with the media); (2) there was an assumption that these skills and knowledge did not exist among ecologists; and (3) while education and related aspects of science communication and engagement are allied, they are distinct in important ways that were not being reflected in the meeting program. In that small circle of people, we identified deep expertise in skills and approaches including nonprofit management, coalition building, outdoor education, art–science integration, science journalism, and citizen science programs. What struck us all was that we had both important skills and experience training others in these skill sets. We also anticipated we were not the only ESA members with such interests and skills. We resolved to offer a training at the next ESA Annual Meeting, and over the next few months, proposed, and planned a half-day workshop for ESA 2014 in Sacramento: “Beyond the Written Word: Advancing Ecology Communication Through Multimedia.” As we developed the workshop and an accompanying resource guide, Holly Menninger, now Director of Public Engagement and Science Learning at the Bell Museum of the University of Minnesota, suggested we create an ESA section focused on science communication to address the broader aims of our workshop team. During the workshop and throughout the ESA 2014 Annual Meeting, section co-founders Clarisse Hart, Holly Menninger, Bethann Garramon Merkle, Molly Mehling, and Chris Chreesewe collected signatures in support of our petition to launch the section. In early 2015, the Science Communication Section was officially approved by ESA. To connect with fellow ESA SciComm folks and to collectively determine a direction for the section, the co-founders distributed a survey at the ESA 2015 Annual Meeting. Through the survey, we solicited ESA member perspectives regarding Section priorities and interest in contributing to the section. Survey results informed the initial Section priorities: In 2017, section leadership presented a proposal to change the section name from Science Communication to Communication and Engagement. The goal was to have the name accurately reflect the variety of ways section members are involved in sharing science. The name change was approved by section members at the 2017 annual business meeting and by ESA in January 2018. Today, Section priorities also reflect the essential role that engagement efforts play in diversifying the face of STEM, engendering public support for science, and expanding the use of science in civic and political decision-making. Therefore, communication skill-building (priority 1) and science communication collaborations (priority 2) remain central foci of the section. ESA has several effective mentorship programs in place. Thus, to support priority 3, we have invested in encouraging our members to volunteer for existing mentorship programs while emphasizing their capacity and interest in communication and engagement. Priority 4 is addressed by posting information about existing job boards and common hashtags on social media (see section Web site). We have also established a greater emphasis on supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in ecology through inclusive science communication and engagement activities. We strive to listen to, learn from, invite, and include minoritized perspectives, and we hold firm on expectations that ESA prioritize all members’ safety, integrity, and dignity. We are committed to centering underrepresented voices in the programming the C&E Section contributes to at annual meetings. As we aim to support ESA members in these areas, we are also working to be more inclusive with the SciComm and engagement resources we share and the practitioners we have invited to tell their #MySciComm stories. Our section's longest running project, the #MySciComm Series, is ending in December 2019. It is a collection of 35 stories that together represent many approaches taken to communicate science and engage with various audiences. The series was designed to provide a platform where science communicators could candidly share their work and what it takes to do it. #MySciComm contributors include journalists and filmmakers, illustrators and educators, and ecologists at all career stages. Each story concludes with advice and resources for people looking to improve their science communication and engagement work. We wrote more about the origins of #MySciComm in a story published on the ESA blog, EcoTone.4 As highlighted in the #MySciComm series, our membership is broad, and individuals join for a variety of reasons. Some of our members are university professors who want to enhance or expand their engagement skills and efforts, while others are communication officers and freelance science journalists. In our work and service to ESA, we aim to be inclusive of the diverse approaches, perspectives, and motivations behind science communication and engagement efforts. During the five years that our section has been in official existence within ESA, we have evolved into a group that actively seeks and nurtures ideas and activities that will allow for interdisciplinary collaborations. We value working cooperatively, with other ESA sections and members, across areas of expertise, experiences, and perspectives. Powerful community-building has resulted, along with enhanced productivity and innovation among our leadership and members. This series is one example. We believe that the collaborative efforts of many ESA sections and members, rather than more isolated work in parallel, have the power to more efficiently and enjoyably move us forward as a professional society that values science communication and engagement. Our section officers play a key role in ensuring the section stays dedicated to collective and inclusive efforts. Our leadership operates similarly to other ESA sections in that we have an elected Chairperson, Chairperson-elect, and Secretary. We also have appointed leadership positions that provide additional opportunities for leadership experience. We hope that these positions enable us to more broadly engage our section membership. Two of these positions, Student Section Liaison and Policy Section Liaison,5 facilitate communication with other ESA sections to build relationships and the potential for collaboration. Additional positions focus on supporting section social media efforts (i.e., the section's Facebook group and Twitter account), maintaining our Web site, and editing our blog. We are always looking for ways to interact more directly with our membership and accept pitches for blog posts, blog series, and other projects and initiatives. Contact us directly if you would like to join the leadership team. Here, we share the stories of some current and recent officers, to highlight the mutually beneficial nature of serving in these roles. Jennifer Purrenhage first reached out and volunteered with the C&E Section after binge-reading dozens of #MySciComm stories on the section Web site. The diversity of backgrounds and pathways represented in the stories, combined with the honest and personal storytelling, engaged, and inspired her to serve. While immersed in #MySciComm, two themes resonated with Purrenhage: (1) making SciComm and engagement a professional priority is not mutually exclusive with being a committed scientist or educator; and (2) SciComm and engagement is not the job of other people (the “experts”). There is a meaningful place for each of us because of, not despite, our prior experiences. Both points were empowering for her personally and professionally, as an educator who integrates SciComm theory and practice into all of her courses. She continues to share these messages with her students to empower them as science communicators. Purrenhage served as section Secretary (2017–2019), and as an editor and contributing author for both the #MySciComm and SciComm Lit Review series. For section co-founder Bethann Garramon Merkle, the C&E Section has been a major aspect of her professional growth. She came to ESA without formal training as an ecologist, but with a career's worth of experience allied to ecology. As part of the leadership of the section since its inception, Merkle has infused the section and her additional ESA leadership roles with the pragmatism of nonprofit leadership, the visual impact of an artist, and sensitivity regarding access and inclusion that come from being a first-generation student and an entrepreneur before her career in academia. Likewise, her experiences with the C&E Section have become a powerful platform for her to learn, grow, and enhance her networks and career while simultaneously enhancing ESA (e.g., editor in chief of C&E publications such as the #MySciComm series, co-launching this human dimensions series, founding editor of the Communicating Science Section of The Bulletin, and society-wide work on inclusion and engagement). Similarly, several of the C&E Section's current officers expanded their capacity and experienced meaningful impacts in their own careers and perceptions of the research process and who belongs in ecology as a result of work with our Section. For example, Skylar Bayer initially wrote for the #MySciComm (2017) and SciComm Lit Review (2018) series before becoming the Online Editor, Policy Section Liaison, and current (2019–2021) section Secretary. She was drawn to the section because of the network of scientists and communicators within ESA who are passionate about ecology, community engagement, and DEI initiatives. Emily Whalen joined the C&E Section as the first Student Section Liaison in 2018. As a student and early-career ecologist, she sees the energy and creativity that students bring to ESA. Because students will be the next generation of ESA leaders, she recognizes the importance of including their voices in efforts to develop communication and engagement initiatives in the Society. As liaison, Whalen's goal is to learn about the interests and needs of student members in fostering science communication and engagement skills and opportunities, and to help build these collaborations. Kirsten Schwarz joined the C&E Section as Chairperson-elect in 2018. As an urban ecologist and associate professor at Northern Kentucky University, her interests in the section primarily stem from her work in community-engaged scholarship. She used many of the resources on the C&E Web site to develop a science communication class at her home institution in 2014. In 2018, she was selected as an AAAS Leshner Fellow, which motivated and gave her the confidence to contribute to C&E in ESA, her home professional society. As a postdoctoral researcher, Annaliese Hettinger was contemplating a shift in her career focus from scientific research to science writing. During this time, she also became more deeply dedicated to addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM and beyond. She found the C&E Section while seeking support, community, and resources. She has found all of that and more while serving on section leadership for the last three years, first as Secretary (2016–2017), then as Chairperson-elect (2017–2018), and most recently as Chairperson (2018–2019). She helped to co-found the #MySciComm series and served as an editor and contributing author. The varied journeys, perspectives, and experiences of the Section's leadership are evidence of the important role the Communication and Engagement Section plays for ESA members. As we make leadership transitions following the Annual Meeting, we reflect and look ahead in anticipation of our next big project. Right now, we are focused on highlighting the communication and engagement work of the ESA membership and more formally recognizing the value of this work. Calls for scientists to increase their public engagement efforts have proliferated (e.g., Keeler et al. 2017) as environmental degradation and climate change become increasingly apparent (e.g., Cook et al. 2013) concomitant with a decline in the public trust of science and scientists (Pew 2015, AAAS 2016). An extensive body of research indicates that universities and institutions (such as professional societies like ESA) can play a significant role in supporting, incentivizing, rewarding, and therefore valuing the considerable investments that scientists make to public engagement (e.g., Shanley and López 2009, Bednarek et al. 2018, Jefferson et al. 2018). Given this research, our section is in the process of establishing two new Communication and Engagement Awards: the Communication and Engagement in Practice Award and a Communication and Engagement Best Poster Award. Our successful 2019 Long Range Planning Grant will support the first five years of the program, enabling us to recognize the intellectual, scientific, and civic contributions made by ESA members active in public engagement and science communication. These awards will benefit ESA members by providing specific recognition of the broader impacts of their work, and ESA as a society, by demonstrating a public-facing commitment to communication and engagement. ESA and ESA members can help by As a section, we model and encourage relationships wherein practitioners and researchers in ecology and the science of science communication naturally learn from and support one another and co-create research projects where engagement is embedded in all stages. We visualize ESA as a leader in progressive and inclusive communication and engagement efforts. We envision the C&E Section playing a major role in supporting the shift in culture to one where engagement and communication activities are essential to ecological research. Ultimately, we recognize that not all ecologists desire to become science communication professionals. But all communication and engagement work by ecologists is valuable, and science communication professionals play an essential role as members and leaders in ESA. As ecologists, regardless of our scientific foci or our ESA “home” sections, we must branch out and engage with one another and with our broader communities. Engagement must be built into our research planning and implementation processes, not merely as an avenue to communicate results. Inclusive, meaningful engagement is sharing what we have learned about the vital connections between humans and the environment in an ongoing, iterative, and consultative way, at all stages of the research process. Indeed, ecology can only effectively inform decision-making if it is communicated in inclusive, evidence-based ways that are tailored appropriately for specific audiences and stakeholder groups. We want to connect with you! Have an idea you would like to collaborate on? Wondering how you can advance your own SciComm work? Interested in changing how your institution values engagement? Please reach out. You can follow along through our monthly newsletter, Web site, and social media accounts. Website: esa.org/communication-engagement/ Monthly newsletter: esa.org/communication-engagement/scientist-scicomm/newsletter/ Twitter: @ESA_SciComm Facebook: facebook.com/groups/156746574836246/ Photo 1. Best practices in science communication and engagement are closely related to best practices around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. With this in mind, the Communication and Engagement Section embeds human dimensions and DEI into our work toward two central goals: (1) professionalizing science communication efforts within and beyond ESA and (2) providing resources and mentorship to ecologists interested in transitioning to careers in science communication or incorporating meaningful communication and engagement into their careers. Pictured here: Wildlife ecology graduate students provide a hands-on workshop in telemetry to participants of a Girls in STEM event at the University of Wyoming. Photo credit: Bethann Garramon Merkle.