Amy Tourgee, 2014, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Amy Tourgee ’14

This past summer, I was an intern on the Land, Water, Wildlife team at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) in Washington, D.C. EDF works to conserve ecosystems by preserving land, protecting wildlife and restoring rivers and wetlands. Specifically, I worked with my adviser on a climate change vulnerability assessment of vertebrates in the corn belt states. The analysis included over 200 species between two states and the results spanned five different vulnerability levels. One of my tasks was to interpret the results by creating graphs and drawing a comparison of vulnerabilities between the species of the two states. Additionally, I worked with my adviser to use the results to incorporate climate change into the revision of state policy plans dealing with wildlife. Working at EDF was truly a transformative experience, as I was working at the forefront of environmental advocacy. Because EDF is at the intersection of science, policy and economics, I learned, as a scientist, how to incorporate elements of politics and economics into environmental reform.