There’s More to Diversity Than Just the Wildlife

Biodiversity is indeed critically important regarding our wildlife populations and their habitats. But, given the demographic trends of the population of the United States, diversity of the workforce of natural resources biologists and managers also is critically important.

Wildlife professionals need to continue to be aggressive in recruiting qualified individuals that ensure that the gender, racial, and cultural diversity of wildlife biologists and managers reflects current, and most importantly, future demographics of the United States.

It’s important to recognize that this issue extends to not just race, but culture, as wildlife resources and their habitats are viewed and valued differently by the cultures of our global society.

Agenda

• Introduction- Bruce D. Leopold, President, The Wildlife Society
• Past and Current Strategies - What has worked, what hasn’t?? – Roel Lopez, Texas A&M University
• Trends and Issues – Why is a diverse workforce in Natural Resources so important? - Columbus Brown, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
• Integrating Cultural Differences - Jeanne Jones, Mississippi State University
• Diversity - A young professional’s perspective - Seafha Blount, University of Arizona
• The Future- What must we do, Seriously!! - Dana Sanchez, Oregon State University
• Concluding Remarks - Bruce D. Leopold, President, The Wildlife Society

Our Panelists

Roel R. Lopez, PhD is Associate Director of the Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources. Lopez has more than 20 years experience in natural resource and land management issues with academia, federal agencies, and private industry.

His research focuses on endangered and fragmented wildlife populations, nuisance populations in urban settings, and sustainability on military lands.Lopez has authored more than one hundred journal articles and book chapters on various topics including work-force diversity in the natural sciences.

He has chaired 60 graduate students, half from minority origin, and has remained active in The Wildlife Society at the local to national level. He currently resides in San Antonio, Texas with his wife Angelica, son Cristian, and daughter Ysla.

Columbus H. Brown retired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2008 as the Special Assistant to the Regional Director for Fishery Management Commissions and Councils inAtlanta, Georgia. Since retirement, he has served on both the Ecosystems and the Marine Protected Areas Scientific and Statistical Committees of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

During his career spanning over 35 years, he served as the Regional Director’s designee on the South Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management councils as well as the Atlantic and Gulf States Marine Fisheries commissions. He also acted as the Service's primary representative on the Interagency (Federal and State) Gulf of Mexico Program. Brown received his B.S. in Zoology from Florida Atlantic University and his M.S. in Marine Biology from Florida State University. He is married to Lerita Coleman Brown, PhD and is the father of two grown children,  Columbus II and Camille. He enjoys fly-fishing, wildlife and landscape photography, gardening and collecting art.

Jeanne Jones, PhD is a TWS Certified Wildlife Biologist and TWS Fellow. She works as a professor of wildlife science in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture at Mississippi State University. She received multiple regional, and national awards for excellence in teaching and advising, including the 2009 Outstanding Woman Faculty Award at MSU.

Her research interests focus on restoration ecology, site reclamation, restoration and conservation of wetlands, conservation and restoration of sensitive ecosystems and rare species’ habitat. Jones has co-authored more than 45 technical publications, reports, and refereed manuscripts, and often writes popular articles on wildlife habitat management and native food plants. She is the co-author of two books on prairie restoration and wildlife habitat management. Jones is a professional illustrator and has completed numerous illustrations for research notes, brochures, textbooks, and other publications. Her confessed passion is conservation of fish and wildlife and the ecosystems on which they depend.

Seafha Blount is from Humboldt County, California, and is a member of the Yurok Tribe. She is from the Frye family of Ah-Pah village. Blount is currently a doctoral studentin Natural Resources Studies with a minor in American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona.She is a University ofArizonaAlfred P. Sloan Indigenous Fellow.

Her research interests include natural resources management on tribal lands, law and policy issues surrounding management decisions, and collaboration between tribes, agencies, and other entities to conserve natural resources. For her PhD research, Blount will work with the Yurok Tribe to incorporate Yurok traditional ecological knowledge in elk or lamprey monitoring. She received her B.S. in Biology from Missouri Southern State University inJoplin, Missouri, and her M.S. in Wildlife Conservation and Management from the University of Arizona.

Dana Sanchez is an Assistant Professor and Extension Wildlife Specialist atOregon State University, where a significant portion of her position is devoted to working to recruit, mentor, and retain future colleagues from a range of diverse and currently underrepresented backgrounds.

At a broader level, Sanchez works to build a welcoming campus community and climate by serving on diversity catalyst teams within and across units in the University, including the campus chapter of the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI).

Her research interests include mammalian space use and habitat selection, and human-wildlife issues.