Elizabeth Anderson is a freshwater conservation ecologist and an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. Her research highlights the importance of rivers and the challenges they face from human activity and an evolving climate. The Moore Foundation has supported her efforts to conserve transboundary freshwater systems in the Western Amazon through scientific research and the co-production of knowledge.
Check out her group’s website, Tropical Rivers Lab, for a more in-depth look at some of their storytelling work focused on river systems.
In this edition of Beyond the Lab, Elizabeth takes us through the challenges and fulfilling moments in her career and breaks down why co-production of knowledge is so important for conservation work in the Amazon.
What made you want to become a researcher in the first place?
I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and spent much of my youth outdoors. When I was a kid, we had a creek behind our house, and it was like a playground – my brothers and I spent countless afternoons and weekends in the creek, fishing, or just playing around.
My parents also took us to nearly every national or state park and monument in Georgia and the neighboring states, so I always had an appreciation for protected areas and nature, even though I didn’t understand the work that went into it.
These visits were a big part of my upbringing, and it was truly an awakening when I realized you could make a career of environmental conservation and management. My parents were very surprised by that as well.
As you’ve progressed through your journey, what have been some of your sources of inspiration?
I’ve had some great mentors.
When I was a high school student, I met Emmanuel Naniuzeyi, who at the time was a professor of political science at Morris Brown College in Atlanta. He lived on my street, and we regularly talked about all sorts of topics, from sociology to international relations to the environment, and he encouraged me to think about my interests and the work I would like to do. Looking at current events from an intellectual perspective helped me realize that research could be an interesting pursuit.
I did both my undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Georgia, and I had two co-advisors for my dissertation, Cathy Pringle and Mary Freeman, who are mentors even to this day.
During my senior year of college, I was unsure of the next step I wanted to take. One afternoon, I went down to the Biological Sciences building, knocked on Cathy’s door, and told her I wanted to learn more about her work on tropical rivers in Costa Rica and Puerto Rico. We had a great conversation, I got to ask so many questions, and I eventually worked in her lab. I’m so grateful to her because an hour of her time ended up opening so many doors for me. I try to pay that forward now – taking the time to guide and mentor curious, hardworking students and connect them to opportunities.
Mary showed me the importance of being kind, a good colleague, and having high standards for yourself and your research. She also taught me the importance of having a clear research question and thinking deeply about the direction you want to take your work. She was one of the smartest, most creative researchers around, but was also humble, and I learned so much from her quiet leadership.
Then there is my postdoc advisor, Michael McClain. He put a lot of trust in me to do my work, never micromanaged, and was supportive in helping me develop my own leadership skills and professional presence as a scientist. He created a space where I could take ownership of many international projects, which was important for someone fresh out of grad school.
One more thing I have appreciated more and more over time is the importance of having peer mentors or support from others at a similar career stage. I’m part of a group of five women who were all in grad school around the same time, working on our dissertations in Costa Rica. More than 20 years later, we still keep in touch, support each other, read each other’s papers, and celebrate exciting work together.
What advice do you give to students or younger researchers?
There are three main things I think about.
One of them is just encouraging people to figure out what they are good at and what motivates them. It doesn’t necessarily have to be math or science. You can ask, “Am I good at communicating or taking in a lot of information?” Absorbing a lot of information that might seem disparate and putting it into a storyline is a good skill for a researcher. Are you good at analyzing things or keeping a team on task? After figuring your talents out, many different professions have spaces for you to put those innate abilities to work.
Elizabeth in Cofanes-Chingual, Ecuador. Credit: Alvaro Del Campo, The Field Museum
I also encourage people to do regular self-reflection. For example, after every class I teach, I take out my notebook and write down what went well and what I would do differently next time. It’s helpful to ask questions, examine what you find challenging, and try to understand your role in life, your profession, or something else. Making sure you have that space for self-reflection is really important as you continue in your career.
The last thing is that I tell my students to get comfortable with being challenged and with being uncomfortable. If you’re in a situation where you feel like you know everything, then you’re missing an opportunity for growth. When you’re facing a topic that you know very little about, embrace that instead of being intimidated. It’s a chance to improve your own abilities, expand your horizons, and think about things differently.
How would you describe the problems that you and your colleagues are most interested in solving right now?
Our work aims to highlight the importance of rivers and other flowing-water environments and elevate them as objects of conservation. We do applied and problem-solving research primarily on tropical rivers, trying to understand their ecology, such as fish species that live there and what they need to thrive, as well as how humans interact with and depend on rivers.
We study rivers through an interdisciplinary lens, and our work falls into three big areas. One is addressing gaps in scientific knowledge of rivers. The second is working to conserve and manage them – often, the gaps we’re addressing with new knowledge are needed for different conservation or management approaches. The third area is increasing the focus on human connection and storytelling around rivers. People shape rivers, but rivers shape people in turn.
We use mixed-method approaches, including ecological and social science, to study these systems. We also use visual methods, oral histories, and storytelling to understand the lens through which people see and interact with rivers.
Elizabeth Anderson in the Tahuayo Basin, Peru. Credit: Fiorella Briceno
What are some of the main challenges that you have faced in your career?
On a personal level, I’m curious about a lot of things, so there just isn't enough time to study or work on everything. I always have something to do or think about, which is both a strength and a challenge.
From a professional standpoint, the interdisciplinary nature of our work requires collaboration and co-production of knowledge with the human communities connected to the rivers we study, so our work relies heavily on relationship-building. Building a relationship, gaining trust, and developing a plan for shared research and data do not always fit within a typical project timeline.
For example, a local project focused on the Miami River in Florida took us about two years of relationship-building to reach the point where we could begin conducting much of the research. A Moore Foundation-supported project in the Amazon took about a year to map the different people who work with and steward the Amazon River. I’m grateful that the foundation recognized the importance of that relationship-building and gave us room for it in our project timeline.
Co-production of knowledge is a common theme across the work we support. Can you talk more about its importance?
Let’s use the Amazon as an example. It’s the world's largest and most complex river system, and it is difficult to study because of its sheer size. The people who have lived here for generations know the most about the Amazon and the Amazon River. All the research taking place there must recognize that.
We want to highlight the global importance of Amazon freshwaters and make the case for why people should care about their long-term conservation. By respectfully engaging with the communities that live there, we can learn different ways of knowing and valuing rivers. Conservation efforts benefit from this exchange of knowledge and perspectives.
What have been some of the most fulfilling moments of your career?
It has been a huge privilege to see so many parts of the world, not just as a tourist but through the eyes of the people we work with. It has been so inspiring to connect with communities, share perspectives, and learn about the knowledge, kindness, and curiosity of people all over the world.
It has also been important to me to have the opportunity to bridge different worlds and amplify the voices of people who might not always be represented in international spaces or in scientific publications.
Looking ahead, where would you like to see your work in five years or more?
Right now, a large part of the Amazon and Amazonian forests have some form of protected status, but the Amazon River itself does not. We are working towards protecting a transboundary biocultural riverscape shared among Colombia, Peru, and Brazil.
It is complicated to think about what flowing waters like rivers need to be protected. I’m making it sound easier than it is, but with forests or terrestrial areas, it can often be more straightforward to identify a specific area of land to protect. Rivers are such seasonally dynamic systems and they require accounting for what is happening both upstream and downstream. I hope that a few years from now, the research we’ve done using these co-production approaches will have led to or enabled some new conservation frameworks for the Amazon and other rivers.
What are some hobbies and interests you have when you’re not working?
I love reading novels, especially historical fiction. I also generally just enjoy being outside, in nature, and being active – I love playing sports, especially soccer and tennis. In the future, I would like to write more, not just scientific writing, but more storytelling and reflecting on the experiences from having a career that has spanned continents and communities over several decades. I also have kids with busy lives, so I’m a band mom and a soccer mom on most weekends.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
I want to stress the importance and power of connections. You can learn something from anyone, and you never know where a simple connection will lead. Sometimes you’re the one learning, and sometimes you’re the one giving the other person something to learn. These personal connections, especially cross-cultural ones in a world where so much happens virtually, are still so crucial.
Another point is the importance of cultural humility. It means approaching situations with an open mind, not assuming you have all the knowledge, and being prepared to learn. It is such an important part of global learning and collaborative research.
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