New Science Communicator Brings Skills of a Story Teller to Her Position

Long Island Sound Partnership’s new science communicator, Quinn Burkhart, says that she will be focusing on scientific storytelling for the public to learn how the LIS Partnership brings partners together to restore Long Island Sound.

Her background includes a stint working for National Audubon Society’s Project Puffin in Maine where she lived and worked with a research team on a remote seabird island, 22 miles off the coast. There she helped to expand Audubon’s audiences with its website and social media channels  with articles and posts. She also managed its wildlife cam, including moderating live virtual events with guests and even holding weekly office hours with a public interested in learning more about the work being done to protect endangered birds. At season’s end, she profiled one of the teams scientist for the project’s newsletter, adding a detail about the positive experience Audubon’s cruise captain discovered volunteering on the seabird island for the first time. The story unveiled the magic of building community in the field to advance scientific research.

“My skillsets in science communication and field work allow me to bridge gaps between science, partners, and the public,” said Burkhart, who began working for NEIWPCC, one of the organizations participating in the LIS Partnership, in January. “I see science communication and engagement as a refocusing of conservation efforts for a non-scholar audience. Scientific stories from the field can be tricky. They can be full of intellectual jargon and political minefields. My job is to demystify these stories by producing compelling narratives in newsletters, social media, and other forms of communication that engage the public and capture their attention.”

A Pennsylvania native,  Burkhart earned a bachelor’s degree in editing, publishing and creative writing from Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA, and a master’s degree in journalism and environmental reporting from Northwestern University. Other places she worked for besides Audubon includes the Sea Education Association and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Sea Grant Program in Woods Hole, MA, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee where she wrote articles on research into supercomputing.

As a Long Island Sound Partnership science communicator, Burkhart will be writing about the projects that are helping the program achieve its major objectives and goals in the new Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. She also will be writing about the health of the Sound for publications such as a new “State of the Sound” report. Her first article for the LIS Partnership profiled how Audubon New York is restoring up to 80 acres of tidal wetlands in Sunken Meadow State Park in Long Island, a long-term restoration effort that received a major boost when an earthen dam holding back tidal water was breached following Superstorm Sandy  in 2012. The article includes a perspective from Audubon New York’s director of coastal resilience on the importance of restoring marsh vegetation and how this project might help the saltmarsh sparrow, a species whose populations are threatened by increasing sea level rise.

“To me, strong science communication is telling a good story about nature and drawing others into the tale,” said Burkhart.

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