EFISA Overview

The Ecological Forecasting Initiative Student Association (EFISA) was founded by students and for students as a platform for sharing resources, bolstering community, and fostering collaboration within the diverse field of ecological forecasting.

The group meets on the third Thursday of each month to provide a community of support for students interested in ecological forecasting. The group provides a venue for graduate students to network with others.  Activities include discussions of relevant papers, short presentations of students’ research, and developing collaborative group projects such as hackathons, software packages, educational resources, and publications. 

Any student interested in ecological forecasting is welcome to join. Students can join EFISA by filling out this registration survey and emailing eco4cast.students@gmail.com. We intentionally prescribe no formal definition of a student and intend for our group to be inclusive of those enrolled in accredited academic institutions and also those who are not.

EFISA Operating Principles and Procedures version 1.0

EFISA Working Group Schedule of Calls:
Monthly Calls: Fridays at 11am US ET on September 20, October 18, November 15, and December 20. A new schedule will be set up for January to May 2025. The new schedule will be posted here and in the #students Slack channel. EFISA is always open to people joining the calls. Fill out the registration survey to be included in the email list.

Topics for Monthly Calls for September to December 2024

Chairs: Meghan Beatty (University of Florida), Kayode Oshinubi (Northern Arizona University), Drew Villeneuve (University of New Hampshire)
Former Chairs: Lynda Bradley (Emory University), Alyssa Willson (University of Notre Dame), Dave Klinges (University of Florida), Whitney Woelmer (Virginia Tech University), Millie Chapman (UC Berkeley)

Career Panel Hosted February 22, 2023
EFISA sponsored a panel on careers beyond academia related to ecological forecasting.
Moderator: Lynda Bradley (Emory University, EFISA co-chair)
Panelists: Juniper Simonis (DAPPER Stats), Alex Hounshell (NOAA), Jake Zwart (USGS), Laura D’Acunto (USGS), Tina Cheng (Bat Conservation International), Giovanni Rapacciuolo (NatureServe), Christy Rollinson (Morton Arboretum)