The EnvComm Blog

Dear wonderful IECA community - happy Monday!

In the name of the board, I would like to ask you to please participate in the elections.

If you login as a member, the link to the elections comes up right at the bottom of the first page you land on ... so it's easy to find, and easy to vote! Read the candidates statements and get in touch with them if you're interested in getting more information!

<apologies for cross-posting>

IECA members and friends: We now have our slate of candidates for board positions in the run-up to the Fall 2022 election. Individuals who are elected will serve four years. Candidates include (alpha by last name):

Vice-Chair: Kundai Chirindo, Silje Kristiansen, Dara Wald

Board positions: three above persons, plus Constance Gordon, Etsuko Kinefuchi, Casey Schmitt, Bruno Takahashi

Thanks to the seven candidates for agreeing to run! Please review their statements—log into the IECA web site, then go to https://theieca.org/member-area/elections and scroll to the bottom of the page to find them. 

We are pleased to let you know that Katie Hunt will join IECA as new Interim ED, starting at Jan, 1st, 2023.

She will begin her transition in this position soon and wants to say “hello” to everyone with her words below. Katie is also happy to get in touch with you :-).

Dear IECA members, 

I am writing to inform you that Mark Meisner's last day as Executive Director of IECA will be December 31, 2022.

We want to thank Mark for his 11 years of tireless service to the organization and his support for all the voluntary board members that are engaged with IECA in different ways and matters!

The IECA Board will decide soon how to handle his departure in terms of staffing the organization. We will let you know our plan as soon as it is finalized.

Happy Easter everyone!

While everyone expected 2022 to be much more positive and stress-free, we learn that we're still in the "Roaring 20ies", challenged by crises, war and risks.

However, "April showers bring May flowers" and at least in the northern hemisphere it's spring - and in the spirit of a "new beginning", we want to introduce our new "newsletter" format for "news from the board". 

As an IECA Educator Fellow it is a pleasure to share my experience teaching climate communications. If you are thinking of developing university coursework focused on climate change communication or climate journalism, I would love to chat with you.

I developed and designed an undergraduate climate change communication course at DePaul University, which I first taught for the first time in winter 2018. I most recently taught an Honors Program version of the course in DePaul’s winter term.

As IECA educator fellows, Michaeleen Gallagher and Maggie Siebert wanted to discuss from a practitioner’s perspective projects that are educational in nature, and have resounding impacts on their respective local environments.  Both projects bring research to the public in an applied, active manner, that expose students and community members to environment focused projects and engage the public to become active participants and passionate change makers. 

Case studies have been a popular qualitative research method that provides researchers with “an intensive, holistic description and analysis of a single instance, phenomenon, or social unit” (Merriam, 1998, p. 21). This methodology has been widely used in environmental communication (EC) research (Jarreau, Altinay, & Reynolds, 2015). Using case studies to teach environmental communication can also be an effective pedagogical technique for EC teachers. Case studies demonstrate to students how abstract EC theories and concepts can be used to solve real-life situations and conservation problems. In this blog entry, as part of the IECA Educator Fellow Program, I would like to share my experience of integrating case studies into the EC classroom.

In the Fall of 2019, the IECA board authorized the launch of an “Educator Fellows” program (add hot link to https://theieca.org/resources/educator-fellows-program) to focus attention on the importance of environmental communication (EC) education within our professional organization and in wider communities and contexts.

Five IECA members were named as fellows for 2020-21:

• Michaeleen Gallagher, Director of Education and Environmental Programs, Annenberg Foundation Trust @ Sunnylands
• Jill Hopke, Assistant Professor, Journalism, DePaul University
• Jason Ludden, Teaching Assistant Professor, English, University of Nevada - Reno
• Maggie Siebert, Adjunct Faculty, Community Engaged Learning and Research, University of New Mexico
• Kenneth C. C. Yang, Professor, Communication, University of Texas at El Paso