Every month, the Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity invites UC Berkeley students to join Jon Jarvis, Sarah Allen, and Patrick Gonzalez to discuss parks, career paths, conservation efforts, research opportunities, and more.
Jon Jarvis is the inaugural Executive Director at the new Institute for Parks, People, and Biodiversity at UC Berkeley. He worked for the U.S. National Park Service for 40 years, and served as its Director from 2009-2016.
Sarah Allen is the Science Program Lead for the National Park Service in the Pacific West Region and Research Coordinator for the Californian Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit at UC Berkeley.
Patrick Gonzalez is the Principal Climate Change Scientist of the U.S. National Park Service and Associate Adjunct Professor at UC Berkeley. Patrick is a forest ecologist who has conducted research in Africa, Latin America, and the U.S.
During the March 20, 2018 Brown Bag event, they discussed diversity within the conservation field, meeting climate mitigation goals on public lands, collaborating with people who own lands around national parks, the goals and opinions that are prioritized when making policies, innovative projects and jobs within the National Park Service, and the potential of emerging zoonotic diseases.
“...I think that’s kind of the first thing to do, is to not come around a table and talk about what you disagree on, but to talk about what you do agree on and build out from there. It’s about building trust.”
— Jon Jarvis
“I encourage you to take the opportunities to volunteer, and not just seek out paying jobs. I have volunteered into every job I’ve held. I started by volunteering and seeing if it worked and if it was appropriate for me. It helps build your interest and shows the quality of your work, as well as brings you into the network that is the Park Service.”
— Sarah Allen
“I help parks manage for potential future conditions under climate change. Rather than trying to conserve parks as little pictures of the past, we’re trying to steward them through unknown futures.”
— Patrick Gonzalez