EDIC-PDC Workshop by Dr. Sonia Hall

Community-engaged research involves people, relationships, and the integration of needs and viewpoints from outside of academia. There are numerous ways of engaging with communities in research, and innumerable communities that researchers can engage with. I will share two examples of community-engaged work that differ in their topic (water management and grazing of rangelands), the community partners involved (state agency and ranchers and public lands managers) and their history (going on two decades and five years) to describe some of the challenges and achievements that are possible when you strive to have research results work with and for communities.

Sonia is the Agricultural Climate Resilience Specialist at the Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources at WSU. She works with transdisciplinary teams to make research relevant and useable. She helps engage the Center’s clientele—producers, legislative staff, regulatory and government agencies, NGOs and agricultural professionals—in research, and works to share the results in useful and useable formats. Her focus is well aligned with her passion for working at the interface of science and decision-making so that research addresses key questions, and results inform natural resource management decisions at all levels. Sonia earned her undergraduate degree from the School of Agronomy at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a Ph.D. in Ecology from Colorado State University, and joined CSANR in 2014. She also works in collaborative conservation efforts as a private contractor, supporting diverse groups coming together to solve complex challenges, including climate adaptation, resilience to wildfire, and wildlife conservation. A lover of big open skies, she is committed to working with researchers and decision-makers to improve the use of science as a way of achieving sustainable use of natural resources.