Welcoming our New Storyteller
The IWJV is pleased to announce the hire of a new Communications Specialist, Megan McGrath. Do you have a story about community-based conservation being done in your area that you’d like help telling? (Or just want to reach out and get to know Megan?) Please feel free to shoot her an email anytime at megan.mcgrath@iwjv.org.
Greetings to the Intermountain West Joint Venture community!
I’m Megan McGrath, the IWJV’s new Communications Specialist, and I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to you all.
My previous experience has been a blend of traditional academic research, science media and communications, program operations, and fine arts. I wrote a master’s thesis on dolphin social behavior; produced science news radio pieces and articles for Voice of America; helped the media company Atlas Obscura run its online courses department; and I run my own small arts business, with a focus of painting depictions of native species and helping others get in touch with their local environments through an artistic and scientific lens.
In this new role I look forward to crafting feature articles and designing social- and multimedia content to tell the story of conservation being done across the Intermountain West. This work will involve writing up stories, interviewing key change-makers and stakeholders on the ground, and figuring out new and innovative ways to keep people informed. Here are a few important lessons I’ve learned in the course of my career that I hope to carry with me:
A place in nature is best understood not at the level of the individual, nor the species, but at the ecosystem level, taking into account the complex of relationships that weaves us all together.
If you take a step back and look at these whole-ecosystem relationships, you will find truly fascinating stories to tell.
If you want to understand what’s happening in a natural system—or get anything done to help conserve it—you need to talk face to face with the people who live and work the land every day and ask them a lot of questions, because no one knows a place quite like the people who live there.
I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to tell the stories of partnership-driven, voluntary conservation efforts that the members of the IWJV community are enacting across the Intermountain West, and I’m excited to meet all of you. I look forward to following biologists, land managers, and knowledge-keepers across their own areas of the range with notebook and camera in hand to document these efforts. If you see me out there (either in person or virtually), please come say hi and tell me a little bit about the important work you’re doing, because the IWJV is here to tell your story.