Code: LH11806
Dates: October 24, 2022
Meets: 1:30 PM to 3:00 PM
Sessions: 1
Location: Creutzburg Center
Course Fee: $41.00
Sorry, we are no longer accepting registrations for this course. Please contact our office to find out if it will be rescheduled, or if alternative classes are available.
Erin Betley
Erin Betley is a Biodiversity Specialist and Programs Coordinator at the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. After a childhood spent combing the beaches and woods of Massachusetts, Erin was inspired by a truly remarkable high school biology teacher to enter the life sciences. She graduated from Boston University in 2001 with a B.A. in Biology and initially pursued a career in molecular and cellular biology. A chance encounter with a billboard that stated “Learn What You Love” inspired some reflection on her true motivations, and after two fisheries internships with the Student Conservation Association involving Pacific salmon research in Alaska with the USDS Forest Service and in Oregon with the Bureau of Land Management, Erin found her true calling in ecology and conservation biology. She worked full-time managing a cell biology laboratory at Columbia University Medical Center while completing her Master’s degree in Conservation Biology at Columbia’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology. During her studies, she was fortunate to learn from another life changing mentor, Dr. Eleanor Sterling, and followed Dr. Sterling to the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation (CBC) at the American Museum of Natural History. As Biodiversity Specialist, she provides research, writing, and coordination support for various CBC projects. She is content research specialist for the AMNH traveling exhibitions Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture and Water: H2O=Life. She is author of numerous scholarly and educational materials on the topics of biocultural stewardship and conservation, evidence-informed conservation, human well-being, equity, stakeholder engagement, systems thinking, food, and water, including case studies for the CBC’s Network of Conservation Educators and Practitioners and the AMNH Seminars on Science course Water: Environmental Science, a CODiE Award winner for Best Professional Development Solution from the Software & Information Industry Association. She serves as practitioner instructor for courses at Columbia on food, ecology, globalization, and health. Erin also coordinated the CBC’s sea turtle research and conservation project at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Central Pacific, where she conducted field research. Along with Dr. Sterling and colleagues at the CBC, Erin launched Untold Stories, organized by the Women in Natural Sciences chapter at the American Museum of Natural History, highlighting the stories of individuals from underrepresented groups whose contributions to exploration, discovery, and our understanding of our natural world have been largely unknown. Prior to coming to the CBC, she also served as Research and Expedition Coordinator for the No Water No Life nonprofit photodocumentary project in the Columbia River Basin.