Mary McKenna developed a passion for understanding nature through a childhood spent exploring the forests of the Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts and the beaches and marshes of the North Atlantic coast. Mary received her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from SUNY Stony Brook in 1987 under the direction of Dr. James Thomson, Dr. David Mulcahy (U Mass, Botany Dept), Dr. Doug Futyuma and Dr. Barbara Bentley. Her primary research in the areas of plant reproductive ecology, plant community interactions, alpine plant ecology and the ecology of hyperaccumulator plants has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the US Forest Service. In addition to her research on Howard University’s (HU) campus, Dr McKenna also participates in the Blandy Field Station REU program.
After a brief period at Sarah Lawrence College, Dr. McKenna joined the biology faculty at HU, where she teaches Ecology and Plant Ecology. Mary is strongly committed to maintaining a broad curriculum in HU’s Biology Department, which allows students to gain exposure to ecology, evolution and organismal biology. Mary is also passionate about promoting participation of underrepresented minorities in ecology education, research and careers. As a member of the Board of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), she developed a Diversity Scholars program designed to attract and facilitate minority student participation in AIBS activities, and the AIBS Diversity Awards program to celebrate and promote exemplary efforts to increase diversity in the field of biology. In 2004, Dr. McKenna organized the DIBS coalition, a group of representatives of educational and scientific societies in the Washington DC metropolitan area (AAAS, AIBS, ASM, ESA, CAHSEE, NCSE, NEETF etc) that meet four times a year to promote partnerships and synergism in diversity programs.
Dr. McKenna has also worked with the Ecological Society of America for many years. From 1994-1996, Dr. McKenna served as Chair and Chair-Elect of the Metropolitan Washington Chapter of ESA, and she has represented ESA on the AIBS Council for nine years. Mentoring undergraduates and involving them in ESA is a great joy for Dr. McKenna; several of her students have participated in SEEDS activities including field trips, annual meetings and acting as SEEDS mentors. Five HU undergraduate students that Dr. McKenna mentored in her research lab so far have pursued a Ph.D. in plant ecology: Joel Abraham at UC Berkeley (with Dr. Wayne Sousa), Gerod Hall at Cornell U (with Dr. Alison Power), Nicole Sudler at U Kentucky (with Dr. Nicholas McLetchie), Tonia Quintero at U Hawaii (with Dr. Brent Sipes) and Kerry Brown at SUNY Stony Brook (with Dr. Jessica Gurevitch). Kerry Brown is currently a post-doc at Columbia U with Dr. Shahid Naeem. A HU graduate student who worked with Dr. McKenna on community outreach for a NSF grant (Lisa Hoffman) is now the Director of the Charlotte Nature Museum in Charlotte, NC.
Dr. McKenna is excited about advising the recently reincorporated SEEDS chapter at HU. This chapter will promote awareness of careers in ecology across the HU campus and provide further support for the students involved in the Environmental Biology Scholars initiative. This new program is directed by Dr. McKenna and funded by a NSF Undergraduate Mentoring in Biology grant. It involves mentoring undergraduates in ecological research and encouraging students to enter graduate programs in environmental biology. The program is structured to support three cohorts of five students before the end of the current funding period. Other HU faculty mentors involved in this program include Dr. Priscila Chaverri, Dr. George Middendorf, Dr. Michael Paul and Dr. Raymond Petersen. Students are conducting research in the DC metro area, at the Baltimore LTER, at the University of Virginia’s Blandy Research Station, at La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica and at Harvard Forest LTER. Student progress is facilitated through Research Forum meetings every other week where all students meet with Dr. McKenna to peer-review their research. Awareness of ecological research is stimulated by Environmental Biology Seminars that bring prominent ecologists to campus three or four times each semester. Environmental Biology Scholars receive a thorough training in ecology, evolution and organismal biology through courses at HU and through participation in a Field Ecology course taught by Dr. McKenna at Mountain Lake Biological Station. Dr McKenna is currently mentoring research for four Environmental Biology Scholars; most of their research is being conducted at Blandy Field Station in Virginia.
The Environmental Biology Scholars have shown leadership on campus by organizing a SEEDS student chapter (Shelby Burks, Student Chapter Representative), and a student chapter of AIBS at HU (Gerald Bright, President; Tyra Pendergrass,Vice-President). Another Environmental Biology Scholar (Alexandra Sutton) is president of the HU Environmental Society. These societies have engaged in several outreach projects involving K-12 schools in Washington, DC, including participation as “near-peer” mentors for the EnvironMentors program, as presenters for “Science Discovery Day”, and through organizing a science fair for an elementary school.
The first cohort of five Environmental Biology Scholars recently presented their research at the NSF-sponsored HBCU-UP conference in Baltimore, MD and two students received awards for their oral presentations (Tyra Pendergrass, 1st Place Prize; Shelby Burks, 3rd Place Prize). Four students from the first cohort of the Environmental Biology Scholars have submitted abstracts to present their research at the 2006 ESA meeting, and one student will submit an abstract to present her research at the 2006 American Society of Plant Biologists meeting. Shelby Burks won an award to present her research at the 2006 Society of Wetland Scientists meeting in Cairns, Australia. Gerald Bright also presented his research at the 2005 Benthic Ecology meeting, and the 2006 Atlantic Estuarine Research Society meeting. All Environmental Biology Scholars are exploring graduate school programs in environmental biology. One student (Gerald Bright) will graduate in May 2006, and he will start graduate studies at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science in the Fall 2006. |
Shelby Burks, SEEDS Chapter Student Representative, is a sophomore Biology major in the honors program at Howard. Shelby is originally from Wichita, Kansas. A high school project on water quality in the Arkansas River sparked her interest in aquatic ecology. When Shelby arrived at HU, she was accepted into the Environmental Biology Scholars, a NSF-sponsored program directed by Mary McKenna that supports undergraduate research in environmental biology. Shelby has been exploring decomposition processes in urban and rural streams. She conducted research at the Baltimore Ecosystem LTER under the direction of Dr. Michael Paul at HU, and received a third place award for her oral presentation of this research at the HBCU-UP conference in Baltimore. This summer she expects to continue her studies on stream decomposition processes at the Luquillo LTER in Puerto Rico under the mentorship of Todd Crowl. Shelby will travel to Cairns, Australia this summer to present her research at the Society of Wetland Scientists annual meeting. She has also submitted an abstract to present her research at the ESA Annual Meeting in Memphis. In addition to her scientific pursuits, Shelby is interested in global justice and human rights issues, and she was nominated to represent HU in the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders competition. Shelby is also a member of the Howard U Debate Team and the HU AIBS Student Chapter.
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The aim of the Howard University (HU) SEEDS Chapter is to nurture students pursuing a professional career in environmental science through education, career development, and community service. HU’s SEEDS Chapter Student Representative is Shelby Burks who is a sophomore Biology major in the honors program at HU. The SEEDS Chapter also seeks to strengthen the environmental science community at HU by allowing students to connect more easily with the many exciting opportunities provided by the SEEDS program of ESA.Four members of the SEEDS Chapter (Gerald Bright, Shelby Burks, Michelle Nicholson and Tyra Pendergrass) have submitted research abstracts for the 2006 ESA Annual Meeting in Memphis, Tennessee. Chapter members have also applied for the June 2006 Konza Prairie LTER Program Field Trip sponsored by the SEEDS Program.