Meet Your New Chair!
This month, we are introducing the Early Career Ecology Section’s new chair, Lilli Kaarakka!
Dr. Lilli Kaarakka is an Assistant Professor in Forest Management at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. (She tries hard to adhere to deadlines but sometimes falls short – like for this post.)(And then the webmaster, Cait, fell even shorter. The late blog post was a group effort this time!)
Introduction
Hello everyone – my name is Lilli Kaarakka (my students call me Dr. K) and I am a forest ecologist interested in understanding forest ecosystem function in forests facing environmental change in California and across the West. I have degrees from Michigan Tech, University of Helsinki (Finland), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and spent time as a postdoc at University of Colorado, Boulder. My life — like everyone else’s is hectic — but during my free time from work, I loooooove to camp with my family in the redwoods across California, visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium and think about learning how to surf (not happening though!).
Teaching and research — day-to-day as early-career ecologists
Through my research, I seek to produce practical, scientific outputs such as management guidelines for stakeholders associated with forestry, including land managers and natural resource professionals. To that end, my past research has sought to develop practical solutions for natural resource management, i.e., linking research with practical and operational forest management. Lately I have been spending a lot time figuring out what forest carbon offsets are all about.
In addition to my wonderful job as an educator and college professor, I serve as a member in the Society of American Foresters (SAF) Committee on Forest Policy, and I am an early-career member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters. Through my experience in service through SAF and being a strong advocate for early-career individuals in forestry, I seek to make an important contribution in bridging the two societies, which both advocate for people working in the field of ecology — ESA and SAF.
Why join ECE?
I am going to echo the words of our previous chair, Dr. Kathleen Carroll, this section is welcoming and supportive, and we are also, very active. So what does that mean? It means that we actively involve our membership in leadership positions within the section and ESA, offer awards and travel scholarships and organize training opportunities and sessions at the national conference together with ESA. Please consider joining us!
(Also to clarify, early-career is not a strict ‘this many years from xyz’ concept. Our membership includes both students and individuals who are roaming in the post-degree world).