Bek Chrsitensen, ESA President, Queensland University of Technology

Welcome to the first ESA Bulletin for 2020. Having recently commenced as President of the ESA, I’ve been asked to introduce myself and talk a little bit about the ESA’s plans.

You’ll currently find me in Queensland, where I live on Quandamooka country and work primarily on Turrbal and Yugara country at Queensland University of Technology. I come to the role of President with a mix of experience including roles in state government, NGOs, and universities. My work has spanned research, policy, national coordination, and more recently research infrastructure. The common elements through my work and the things that continue to drive me are: working inclusively and building collaboration, making a positive difference for the environment, and communicating science with diverse audiences.

I firmly believe that the work we do as Australia’s ecological community has a positive impact on society. After the fire season we have just endured, the role of the ecologists and the ESA has arguably never been more important, as we face the reality of increasing natural disasters and devastating challenges for people, wildlife, and ecosystems.

Our Society values the diversity of our members, who are an exceptional group of passionate and dedicated people from across Australia, including students, academics, researchers, land managers, consultants and more, who work across universities and research organisations,
government agencies, private industry, environmental consultancies and NGOs.

As President, I see myself as a temporary custodian of an invaluable position. I am only one person among many who keep the Society running smoothly. With only four part time staff, ESA relies heavily on the volunteer efforts of our Board, 21 working groups, as well as our Journal editors, Hot Topics editors and contributors, and countless people who review applications for grants or prizes, help at conferences, and more.

Collectively, the ESA Board and working groups have collaborated to prepare the new ESA Strategic Plan for 2020-2024. This strategy identifies six high-level aims to guide our activities in the coming years:

• Deliver innovative, high quality, financially viable ecological journals,
• Run the leading national ecological conference and other events,
• Improve the role of indigenous ecologists in the society and enhance two-way knowledge sharing,
• Develop and deliver innovative programs of support and services for members,
• Improve understanding of ecology and integrate ecological and conservation principles into society, and
• Maintain best practice governance, including ensuring equity and diversity across the activities of the society, and excellent membership services.

For my part, I intend to focus on:

• Enabling the ecosystem of volunteers (pardon the pun) that makes ESA so great,
• Keeping the ESA on track for a strong future by maintaining sound governance and building strategies for financial sustainability,
• Supporting our members in ways that matter to them, and
• Building the profile of ecology, ecologists and the important work we do.

I look forward to meeting more of you and learning about your work. If you’d like to get in touch you can /">contact me here.

Read more from the March 2020 ESA Bulletin.