Holly Barnard knows the importance of a mentor. When she began studying forest resources at the University of Washington, she says, “I never thought I'd be getting a PhD in the sciences," she says. However, Drs. Tom Hinckley and Linda Brubaker, who are leaders in their respective fields of tree physiology and paleoecology, encouraged Holly to find an area of science that excited her. Working in their laboratories, she learned ecological research methods and was mentored through an independent research project that was recognized with a Mary Gates Scholarship for Undergraduate Research. With their support, she went on for a master's of science at Colorado State University, co-authoring three publications on tree physiology and publishing her manuscript in the highly selective journal Plant, Cell, and Environment.
After completing her master's degree, Holly worked in the field for several years, but gradually came to see that an academic career was what she most wanted. "I really want to teach," she says. "I think about the teachers who've influenced me along the way, and I'd like to be able to offer that to someone else in the future."
Currently pursuing her PhD at OSU in Forest Science and Forest Engineering, it is clear that Holly has a lot to offer. She was recently selected to participate in a national mentorship program called MS PHDs (Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success in Earth System Science). It allowed her to attend the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December, visit NASA and universities in the San Francisco area, and next year she will spend some time working at the National Academy of Sciences. This honor came just six months after Holly received another highly competitive award, a 2005 Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship. That three-year fellowship is awarded to just 60 pre-doctoral students around the country each year. Diversity Fellowship recipients are chosen on the basis of their academic excellence and their potential for future achievement as scholars, teachers, and researchers in higher education.
Forestry is a discipline that's challenged in terms of minority participation. She agrees that more ethnic and racial diversity within the faculty would have an immense impact in the classroom. "The broader the diversity you have, and the more you encourage interaction among people who come from different cultural backgrounds, the more it leads to critical thinking," she says. "That can build problem-solving skills and open people's minds to different viewpoints later in their lives."
Holly's PhD research is in the field of ecohydrology, a hybrid of ecology and hydrology focusing on the interdependence of vegetation and hydrologic processes. Her studies will determine how vegetation processes, especially transpiration, affect water flow dynamics and pathways in hill slopes. Conversely, she'll be looking at how water flow paths affect vegetation function on a landscape scale. Research of this type is helping water systems managers to understand the larger ecosystem impacts of distribution practices, promoting more sustainable development and management of water resources.
"OSU is an ideal place to carry out these studies," Holly says. "The HJ Andrews LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) site offers incomparable site characteristics, facilities, access to decades of useful and valuable data, and a welcoming, interdisciplinary atmosphere." OSU is considered the nation's premier institution for forest ecology research, and is emerging as a leader in hydrological research. The University has identified water resources as one of its key initiatives, and has committed to reinforcing its already strong interdisciplinary faculty and facilities.
Holly is looking into re-invigorating the Black Graduate Students' Association. The Ford Foundation offers a wealth of resources to its Diversity Fellowship recipients, including career advancement workshops, proposal, grant-writing, and research funding advice, through a network of peers and "elders." By building connections among minority students here on campus, Holly could share these resources and inspire others to use diversity for enriching the education of all students.
Bio of Holly Barnard written by Emily Thomas, Editorial Assistant, Forestry Communications Group, College of Forestry. Adapted from a longer article available at http://oregonstate.edu/dept/grad_school/gradNewsletterFall05/Holly_Barnard.html
