New intern joins TWS government affairs team

The Wildlife Society’s Government Affairs program has welcomed its spring 2021 Joe Burns Memorial Wildlife Policy Intern Allison Scott to the team at TWS’ Headquarters.

Scott, AWB®, is a Virginia native and graduated from Virginia Tech in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in wildlife conservation and a minor in environmental policy & planning. As an undergraduate student, she served as vice president and president of Virginia Tech’s Student Chapter of TWS and was active in undergraduate research.

Allison Scott holds a bobcat (Lynx rufus) equipped with a GPS collar as a part of a carnivore research team in western Virginia. Scott will help track and influence U.S. federal policies that impact the profession, enhance TWS’ policy resources, and engage in coalition meetings, legislative hearings and agency briefings.
Credit: Allison Scott

In 2020, Scott graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a master’s degree in wildlife ecology. Her thesis focused on the community and population ecology of small mammals in northern Wisconsin and involved substantial cross-cultural collaboration with Ojibwe tribes. Scott is interested in the research-policy interface, improving the use of science in decision-making, and developing diverse partnerships to support wildlife conservation and community relationships with the land. She is excited to learn more about the federal policy process and the ways that research informs wildlife policy.

Scott will help track and influence U.S. federal policies that impact the profession, enhance TWS’ policy resources, and engage in coalition meetings, legislative hearings and agency briefings. The Wildlife Society headquarters staff is excited to work with her over the next six months.

Scott enjoys learning about new taxa and landscapes and has completed work with amphibians, bats, songbirds, cottontail rabbits, upland game birds and mammalian carnivores. In her spare time Scott loves being outdoors, playing board games, walking her cat and dog, and playing music.

The Joe Burns Memorial Wildlife Policy Internship helps advance TWS policy priorities and provides professional experience to students and recent graduates looking to expand their network and expertise. The program is named in honor of one of TWS’ first policy interns, Joe Burns. Burns devoted his career to federal service, and spent over 20 years working on behalf of conservation programming within the U.S. Forest Service. Visit wildlife.org/policy to learn more about the program and current offerings.