Dr. Cara Nelson, Chile

Dr. Cara Nelson, Associate Professor of Restoration Ecology in UM College of Forestry and Conservation’s Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, is currently on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Universidad de Concepcion (UdeC) in central Chile. Cara’s experience in Chile has been rich and rewarding, both professionally and personally: fantastic faculty and student collaborators, wonderful new friends, and visits to some of the most beautiful forests and coastlines in the world. While at UdeC, Cara launched two new research lines, in collaboration with Drs. Cristian Echeverria and Marcela Bustamante: 1) exploring linkages between ecosystem patterns and processes in native temperate forests of Chile, and 2) identifying priority areas for forest restoration across Latin America. This second effort involved assembling a team of 24 faculty and students at 5 institutions in Central and South America. Cara is now teaching an international graduate course on restoration ecology for students at these same 5 institutions; the goals of the course are to improve understanding of the ecological theories behind the practice of ecosystem restoration, improve communication skills in English, and create a network of early career scientists in Latin America working in this field. Participating faculty are discussing continuing the course on an every-other-year-schedule. During her time in Chile, two UdeC undergraduates traveled to Montana for semester exchanges and worked with graduate students in Cara’s lab, and Cara mentored one undergraduate and three graduate students at UdeC, one of whom is planning to spend a semester at UM in 2018. Before Cara heads back to UM in January, she will be co-instructing (with Natalie Dawson from UM’s Wilderness Institute) a winter-session course for UM students on the ecology, management, and conservation of ecosystems of Patagonia.

Julie Edwards

As far as I can tell I am only the 6^th librarian to have a Fulbright to sub-Saharan Africa since 2010. At UM I’m one of only a few women who have had Fulbrights in the same time period – I would LOVE for more women apply for awards!

At the University of Botswana I am teaching in the Department of Library and Information Studies and working with colleagues in the Department of Library Services. This semester I’m teaching LIS 304/LIM 300: Understanding the User and LIS 211: Information and Society. I have big classes full of wonderful students and I enjoy working with them tremendously. I’m working with MA students one-on-one as well, which has been great. I’m also collaborating with colleagues in the UB library on continuing education workshops on topics including grant writing, mentorship, information literacy instruction, marketing and outreach, and building collaborations.

Next semester I’m teaching a special topics class based on my book Transforming Libraries, Building Communities: The Community Centered Library (co-authored with Melissa S. Robinson and Kelley Rae Unger, Scarecrow 2013). I’ll likely be working with graduate students again on their MA work, and I’ll definitely be doing more workshops in the library. I also really hope I can get out into the community to work with librarians on the ground, so to speak!

When I’m not in the classroom, my husband Steve and I are driving around looking for wildlife and enjoying the incredible natural beauty of this country. We love to camp and overland so this is the perfect location for us. We spent a great time last Saturday watching two hippos swim around a nearby lake – after an argument about whether they were giant rocks or some kind of animal (he won)!