Strengthening Ecological Careers

A mentor provides feedback on a CV at Career Central during the 2023 Annual Meeting

As a professional organization for ecologists, it’s core to ESA’s mission to support the professional development of its members and community. We took big steps forward in 2023 as we built on the last several years of enhanced career support for ecologists.

The certification program continued to grow, with 154 newly certified ecologists across all career levels, including all-time high numbers of new Ecologist in Training and Associate Ecologist awardees. We also welcomed several new approved CEU providers to our list, which includes training in such far-ranging skills as scientific leadership, wildlife capture, science communication, conservation standards, statistics and modeling, and on and on.

To bolster the continuing education of our certified ecologists and to enhance the value of Society membership, we piloted a new professional development program. Our first four events—featuring a course on humor in scientific presentations, an introductory webinar on R and two career guidance workshops—drew 291 participants. It was only a taste of what was to come, but that’s a story for 2024!

Early career ecologists network at a Career Central event

At the Annual Meeting, Career Central was a raging success. In just three days, several hundred attendees visited 22 sessions on career navigation, plus speed networking with the EICs and daily blocks for resume reviews and mock interviews, all bolstered by almost 150 members who volunteered their time and expertise.

We also continued our programmatic support for science educators by serving as one of the hosts of the 8th Life Discovery Conference – Doing Science Biology Education Conference at Florida A&M University. Over three days, 71 attendees explored a program rich in best practices and lesson ideas (appropriately themed around how pandemics impact education!), with resources published in the LifeDiscoveryEd Digital Library.