On mental health and graduate school, and why we should welcome unique brains.
Author: Chelsea Clifford
As a Ph.D. student in the Heffernan Lab, Chelsea studies ditches and other artificial aquatic systems. She seeks to understand their ecological role and what determines it. More broadly, she is interested in how water connects landscapes, and the interdependent persistence of nature and humans in human-dominated ecosystems. Chelsea is a Virginia Master Naturalist, National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, and Earth Stewardship Initiative Fellow. Before Duke, Chelsea worked for Chesapeake Environmental Communications, The Nature Conservancy, Archbold Expeditions' MacArthur Agro-Ecology Research Center, White Mountain Research Station, and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. She got her BA in biology and environmental studies from Carleton College in 2010, and originates from the salt marshes of southeastern Virginia.
Not My Timber
In light of the season, here’s a reflection on going home, written a year ago.
We need to talk about race.
Recent events recall a lesson I learned from working for the Duke Immerse program in Urban Environmental Justice & Social Entrepreneurship: we need to talk about race. The Nicholas School is not very diverse, and that reality hurts our mission.
Female, Feminist, Scientist, Sexist?
An Implicit Association Test revealed that I have sexist tendencies. Am I subconsciously subverting the students with whom I volunteer and my own career?