Skip to main content Skip to main navigation Skip to page-level navigation Go to the Disability Resource Centre Website Go to the DRC Booking Accommodation Portal Go to the Inclusive Technology Lab Website
The University of British Columbia
UBC - A Place of Mind
The University of British Columbia Okanagan campus
UBC Okanagan News
  • Research
  • People
    • Student Profile
    • Faculty Profile
    • Alumni Spotlight
  • Campus Life
    • Campus News
    • Student Life
    • Teaching & Learning
  • Community Engagement
  • About the Collection
    • Stories for Media
  • UBCO Events
  • Search All Stories
Home / 2006 / March / 27 / UBC Okanagan conservation biologist selected as 2006 Aldo Leopold Fellow

UBC Okanagan conservation biologist selected as 2006 Aldo Leopold Fellow

March 27, 2006

Dr. Karen Hodges, a UBC Okanagan professor and researcher with the new Species at Risk and Habitat Studies (SARAHS) Centre, has received the prestigious Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship. She is one of just 18 Leopold Fellows this year.

The Leopold Fellowship provides recipients with intensive communication and leadership training to help them deliver scientific information more effectively to policy makers, the media, business leaders and the public.

Dr. Hodges, the Vernon C. “Bert” Brink Canada Research Chair in conservation biology, is interested in how land management activities like forestry or fire management affect rare or at-risk wildlife species.

“I am particularly interested in determining how changing the spatial pattern of management – for example, the size or type of habitat reserves, timber harvests, or prescribed burns — affects wildlife,” said Dr. Hodges.

“The training the Leopold Fellowship will provide will help me to be more effective in translating scientific knowledge and ideas into management, policy,  and on-the-ground conservation activities.” Dr. Hodges’ field research is primarily in western forests and sage-steppe habitats, and she has worked in national parks, national forests, and private lands.

“We are very proud that Karen Hodges’ dedication and outstanding work has been recognized with such a prestigious award,” said Dr. Bernard Bauer, Dean of the Barber School of Arts and Sciences at UBC Okanagan.

“This fellowship emphasizes leadership and communications. With the excellent opportunities provided through the Leopold Fellowship, we know Dr. Hodges’ leadership and communications will continue to benefit UBC Okanagan and the work of the SARAHS Centre as she and her colleagues explore important questions in habitat and species-at-risk research.”

Based at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment, the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program each year awards up to 20 fellowships to mid-career academic environmental scientists. The 2006 fellows come from a wide range of backgrounds, including atmospheric sciences, tropical forest ecology, oceanography and anthropology. They join a network of 100 past fellows who are active in outreach to policy makers, journalists and other non-scientific audiences.

“Good policymaking depends on sound information conveyed clearly and accurately,” said Debbie Drake Dunne, executive director of the program. “It also depends on building relationships with decision makers, the news media and other organizations. The Leopold Leadership Fellows are given the tools to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences, with the ultimate goal of better informed policy making.”

Fellows are chosen for their outstanding scientific qualifications, demonstrated leadership ability and strong interest in communicating science beyond traditional academic audiences. Each fellow participates in two, week-long training sessions that include practice interviews with journalists and a mock Congressional hearing at which they practice giving testimony. The fellowship also offers peer networking and mentoring through the Aldo Leopold Leadership Network of program advisors, trainers and past fellows.

— 30 —

Media Contact

Bud Mortenson
Director
University Relations

The University of British Columbia
Okanagan campus
Tel: 250-807-9255
E-mail: bud.mortenson@ubc.ca

Content type: Media Release
More content from: Uncategorized

Trending Stories

  • UBC Okanagan student residence receives Passive House certification
  • Every dog can have its day, even online
  • Old DNA provides new insights for national park’s salmon ...
  • From Argentina to Milan
  • UBCO students present year-end artistic exhibit
All Stories
Contact Media Relations

About UBC Okanagan

UBC’s Okanagan campus is an innovative hub for research and learning founded in partnership with local Indigenous peoples, the Syilx Okanagan Nation, in whose traditional, ancestral and unceded territory the campus resides. The most established and influential global rankings all consistently place UBC in the top five per cent of universities in the world, and among the top three Canadian universities.

The Okanagan campus combines a globally recognized UBC education with a tight-knit and entrepreneurial community that welcomes students and faculty from around the world in British Columbia’s stunning Okanagan Valley. For more visit ok.ubc.ca.

Discover more about UBC Okanagan

Find a Program Admissions Book a Tour UBCO Facts
UBC Okanagan Campus News, University Relations

Innovation Precinct Annexation 1 (IA1)
3505 Spectrum Court
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 2Z1

We respectfully acknowledge the Syilx Okanagan Nation and their peoples, in whose traditional, ancestral, unceded territory UBC Okanagan is situated.

 

Search all stories

Subscribe to receive news by email

Visit UBC's Vancouver news room

Global and Admin Messages

News

Okanagan Campus

UBC Okanagan News
Okanagan Campus
3333 University Way
Kelowna, BC Canada V1V 1V7
Find us on
  
Back to top
The University of British Columbia
  • Emergency Procedures |
  • Terms of Use |
  • Copyright |
  • Accessibility