Abstract: From taking photographs of zebras facing left in central Kenya to hiking through brand new protected areas in Gabon and working at the Bronx Zoo to invasive species research in the North Country and creating conservation easements with the St. Lawrence Land Trust, Dr. Jess Pearson will discuss her path from Potsdam Central School to being an Associate Professor of Environment & Sustainability at SUNY Potsdam. There are connections between everything we to do protect the environment, even if sometimes it’s hard to see how one project will affect others in the future. Understanding the various paths through the conservation world can be connected helped me to figure out the types of jobs I wanted, and how much I wanted to return to the North Country and work to protect our resources here.
Dr. Jessica Pearson, a North Country native, has returned after receiving her undergraduate degree at Princeton University and her masters and PhD at Columbia University in Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology. She is currently an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Environment & Sustainability at SUNY Potsdam. Her research interests look at landscape level conservation: from protected areas in Central Africa to invasive plant and insect monitoring and management with purple loosestrife and the Emerald Ash Borer. Most of her research uses GIS (Geographic Information Systems), as well as well as examining practical methods of conservation in the North Country.