2021-2022

Career Builder Workshop Series

a resource provided by

The Student Affairs Committee of the

Western Section of the Wildlife Society


What is Career Building?

From the first job to the last, professional development never stops. This series is Workshops and so much more meant to help our students find that first job, our early career professionals find that dream job, and our late career professionals find a venue to share their decades of knowledge! This series features a variety of presentations, workshops, and panels where folks who want help building their career can connect with people who have advice and opportunities to offer. But we also know that the connections that our Western Section members make are some of the most valuable benefits they get from being associated with our organization, so in addition to the more structured presentations, workshops, and panels that we offer as part of this series, we are also hosting more casual networking events we call fireside chats. Though these may have a theme, they are meant to be a discussion among peers as opposed to a group of presenters and a group of receivers. These events are MONTHLY and they are FREE!

our Student Affairs Committee offers many career building opportunities at the Annual Meeting and throughout the year!

About your Student Affairs Co-Chairs

Katie Smith

Katie has served on the Western Section board since 2014, first as the Chapter Representative for the Sacramento-Shasta Chapter, then as the Diversity Committee Chair, then as the Student Affairs Chair, and she is your current Western Section President Elect. She recently graduated from UC Davis with a PhD in Ecology and studies the salt marsh harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys raviventris). She also holds a MS from New Mexico State University and a BS from UC Davis. She is a wildlife biologist in the San Francisco Bay Area working for the consulting firm WRA, Inc. She continues to perform her conservation and management focused research on the salt marsh harvest mice with WRA and as a research affiliate at UC Davis.

Elizabeth Meisman

Elizabeth is a Wildlife Biologist working for the international consulting firm GHD Inc. on a wide variety of environmental permitting projects. She completed her B.Sc. in Wildlife Conservation Biology and Applied Vertebrate Ecology, with a minor in German Studies, at Humboldt State University in 2016. She has been extensively involved on the California North Coast Chapter and Western Section boards since 2015. She is a member of the current cohort of the Leadership Institute, hosted by the international level of TWS. Being a big sister is deeply ingrained in her and she strives to help students and early-career professionals whenever possible. In her freetime, she can be found in the woods with her partner and three dogs exploring, camping, or hunting birds.

Resources

Below are links to resources for students and early career professionals.

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