The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is honored to announce this year’s GSPA) recipients. This award provides graduate students with the opportunity to receive policy and communication training in Washington, DC before they meet lawmakers.
ESA selected twelve students to receive the award: Tiffany L. Betras (University of Pittsburgh), Callie R. Chappell (Stanford University), Claire E. Couch (Oregon State University), Ayo Andra J. Deas (The Graduate Center, City University of New York), Ed Higgins (University of Oklahoma), Renata Poulton Kamakura (Duke University), Alexander K. Killion (University of Michigan), Mayda Nathan (University of Maryland), Vasavi Prakash (Auburn University), Natali R. Ramirez-Bullon (Florida State University), Bradley A. Strickland (Florida International University) and Harrison R. Watson (Princeton University).
Students will travel to DC March 25-26 to learn about the federal legislative p
rocess and science funding, to hear from ecologists working in federal agencies, and to meet with their Members of Congress on Capitol Hill. This Congressional Visit Day, organized and sponsored by ESA, offers GSPA recipients the chance to interact with policymakers and discuss the importance of federal funding for science, in particular the biological and ecological sciences.
“ESA is pleased to bring a record number of early-career ecologists from across the country and around the world to DC to hone their communication skills and engage in science policy,” said ESA President Osvaldo Sala, “Scientists who are confident in their ability to communicate can foster a dialogue with decision-makers that is now needed more than ever.”
Vasavi Prakash
Vasavi Prakash is a Ph.D. candidate at Auburn University’s School of Forestry and Wildlife. Her research focuses on human-wildlife conflicts, particularly tigers in India. With an increasing population, fragmenting habitats and poaching threats, tigers face the challenge of surviving in their natural habitat. Conflicts arise due to increased demands on shared resources leading to a negative attitude toward conservation. She is looking for effective solutions that can be implemented at a policy level to augment conservation efforts of large fields. Before graduate school she worked with the Indian government where her responsibilities included forest and wildlife management. Prakash holds a Masters in Forestry from Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy in India.
