About Us

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of scientists founded in 1915 to:

• promote ecological science by improving communication among ecologists;
• raise the public's level of awareness of the importance of ecological science;
• increase the resources available for the conduct of ecological science; and
• ensure the appropriate use of ecological science in environmental decision making by enhancing communication between the ecological community and policy-makers.

ESA's Education and Diversity Programs

The Education and Diversity Programs Office works to increase diversity within ecology-related professions, to engage the public in a dialogue on ecological research and issues, and to improve the quality of ecology education at all levels.

To accomplish this, ESA’s Office of Education and Diversity Programs offers three main programs:

1. Strategies for Ecology Education, Development and Sustainability (SEEDS) for undergraduate students underrepresented in the ecological sciences

2. Online Teaching Resources for faculty

• EcoEd Digital Library - where you can locate and publish teaching resources
• Teaching Issues and Experiments in Ecology (TIEE) - a series of innovative lecture and lab activities and articles on education research to improve teaching and student learning.

3. Faculty development for NEON Education, our newest opportunity.

The department also supports an active community of faculty and education professionals through the Education listserv, which provides a venue for circulating and responding to emerging issues in ecology, environmental science, and science education and ecology education programs.

Activities of the department are guided by the ESA's Education and Human Resources Committee (EHRC). Staff work closely with EHRC to develop new programs that meet the mission of ESA.

ESA also sponsors the member-driven Education Section, consisting of more than 360 ecologists, educators, managers and administrators actively engaged in undergraduate, graduate, K-12 and teacher education, as well as community and public outreach programs and scholarly research in ecology education.

ESA's Other Programs and Services

The Society's Public Affairs Office works to infuse ecological knowledge into environmental decision-making, convey ecological science to the media and the general public, and to provide services to the ecological community.

The Science Programs Office promotes the continued development of ecological science and its integration into decision-making and education, linking the ecological research and management communities.

ESA also publishes a suite of peer-reviewed journals including:

• Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, issued monthly, consists of peer-reviewed, synthetic review articles on all aspects of ecology, the environment, and related disciplines, as well as short, high-impact research communications of broad interdisciplinary appeal.
• Ecology, the leading international journal in its field, publishes articles that report and interpret the results of original scientific research in basic and applied ecology.
• Ecology Applications, published eight times per year, contains ecological research and discussion papers that have specific relevance to environmental management and policy.
• Ecology Monographs is a quarterly journal for longer ecological research articles.

This program has been made possible by the National Science Foundation (NSF).