Celia

Jonaki Bhattacharyya: The Man in the Black Hat

Jonaki Bhattacharyya details the wisdom gained on her journey alongside the man in the black hat. Listen below or stream the official podcast!

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Jonaki Bhattacharyya, PhD, does applied research in ethnoecology (focusing on Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge), conservation planning, and wildlife management. Integrating cultural values and knowledge systems with ecological issues, her research endeavours have ranged from remote villages in India to backcountry meadows in British Columbia (BC), Canada. As Senior Researcher withThe Firelight Group Research Cooperative, Jonaki works with First Nations and communities in Western Canada. Focusing on relationships between people, animals and places, she seeks to make applied contributions to conservation and human management practices around wildlife, protected areas, natural resources, and ecological systems. Jonaki is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, in British Columbia.

Jonaki’s current work builds upon years of engagement with Indigenous peoples, and diverse stakeholders and agencies throughout BC. She continues long-term research on wild horses and traditional Tsilhqot’in First Nations’ systems of land management in BC’s Central Interior. She holds a PhD in Environmental Planning, and Master of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo. She was recently awarded a Wilburforce Fellowship in Conservation Science. Jonaki is motivated by the desire to connect the power of individuals’ experiences in wild nature with policy and governance decisions, so that the knowledge and conservation ethics of people on the ground have a stronger voice in decisions affecting the land.

Jack Ahern: Lessons from the Landscapes

Landscape architect Jack Ahern travels to The Netherlands to get his Phd but comes home with a new lens on how to view his surroundings. Listen below or stream the official podcast!

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Jack Ahern, Ph.D., FASLA, FCELA, is Vice Provost for International Programs and Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, MA. He is a landscape architect who studies the application of landscape ecological theories, principles and methods on landscape planning and design projects – at multiple scales and across a range of contexts – from city centers to peri-urban landscapes and protected/natural areas. His earlier work looked at broad-scale integrated systems of protected lands known as greenways – linking their spatial configuration and resource base with a suite of ecosystem services and cultural landscape management strategies. Greenways are now an international movement and Ahern’s work built a robust theoretical basis to classify, plan, design, and manage greenways. His work contributed to an evolving intellectual bridge between the professional fields of landscape planning and design and the interdisciplinary field of landscape ecology. Continuing on this theme, Ahern published to translate landscape ecology principles and tools, meaningfully credibly, to a diverse audience of professionals and related academics.

Ahern’s current research is focused on the inherent challenges for sustainability and resilience in the 21st Century – the Century of the City. This work continues to engage landscape ecology as a theoretical platform to integrate the emerging, fine-scaled professional practices of green infrastructure and landscape urbanism across scales to form green urban networks linked with ecosystem services, sustainability and to build resilience capacity. He is internationally active, combining his leadership of the UMass International Office with his passion for urban sustainability and resilience.

Ahern shares these passions with his wife Linda, and together they enjoy their adult children and new grandchildren, as well as hiking, sketching and sailing.

Margot Kushel: The Least Terrible vs. Best Possible Plan

Dr. Margot Kushel describes her emphatic efforts to help a homeless patient whose needs outweigh a hospital’s offerings. Listen below or stream the official podcast!

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Dr. Margot Kushel is a Professor of Medicine at UCSF in the Division of General Internal Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital. Margot’s research interests include the health and health care utilization patterns of homeless adults and other vulnerable populations.  She is Principal Investigator of an NIA funded study that is following a cohort of 350 older homeless adults in Oakland CA to assess how life events have impacted their homelessness, their health status (including geriatric conditions) and their use of the health care system.  In the near future, Margot plans to expand this research to include studying symptomatology and views about advanced directives, and on examining novel ways of finding stable housing for older homeless adults.  Margot is also conducting evaluations of new efforts to provide permanent supportive housing to individuals experiencing chronic homelessness and studies of how pain is managed for individuals with substance use disorders who receive care in safety net settings.  At UCSF, Margot is the co-Director of the UCSF Primary Care Research Fellowship and is involved in numerous training activities geared towards training the next generation of implementation scientists who focus on improving care in the safety net. She maintains an active clinical practice as a general internist at the SFGH General Medical Clinic and attends on the inpatient medicine service at SFGH. When not at work (or driving back and forth across the Bay Bridge), Margot can be found reading, swimming, or laughing with her husband and their 13 year old twins. You can follow her on twitter at @mkushel.

Aerin Jacob: Stuck in the Serengeti

Dr. Aerin Jacob recalls the three most valuable conservation lessons she ever learned…from a man with a machine gun. Listen below or stream the official podcast!

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Aerin Jacob, PhD is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Victoria and a Wilburforce Fellow in Conservation Science Fellow. Trained as an ecologist, she works to develop management strategies that incorporate local, Indigenous, and scientific knowledge to achieve conservation objectives while maintaining human well-being. She works with First Nations communities in British Columbia to study the environmental and socioeconomic outcomes of marine management in the Great Bear Rainforest. Aerin is also a member of the Sustainable Canada Dialogues, a network of scholars developing viable, science-based policy options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and guide sustainable development in Canada. Her previous work includes studies of land-use change, restoration ecology, and animal behaviour in East Africa and western North America. Aerin earned her PhD at McGill University and her BSc at the University of British Columbia.

Katherine Chretien: A Need for a Story

Dr. Katherine Chretien, Hospitalist Division Leader at a Veteran’s hospital, describes her emotional journey when her husband is deployed for a year in Afghanistan. Listen below or stream the official podcast!

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Katherine Chretien, MD is chief hospitalist at the Washington DC VA Medical Center and assistant dean for student affairs and associate professor of medicine at George Washington University. She earned her medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where she was inducted to Alpha Omega Alpha and Phi Beta Kappa.  She completed her internal medicine training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Master Teacher Leadership Development Program at George Washington University.

Katherine’s research interests include medical education, reflection, social media in medicine, and professionalism. She was the recipient of the 2012 Charles H. Griffith III Educational Research Award from Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine and the 2013 Women Leaders in Medicine Award from the American Medical Student Association. Katherine is an associate editor at Journal of Graduate Medical Education and on the SIMPLE (Simulated Internal Medicine Patient Learning Experiences, virtual patient cases used by medicine clerkships nationwide) editorial board. She is editor/founder of www.mothersimedicine.com, a group blog of physician mothers.