Bowser, Gillian
Gillian Bowser
Dr. Gillian Bowser is an associate faculty member in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University. Her research interest includes the intersections of ecology and society, especially diverse communities, and their perceptions of nature and justice. She also researches sustainable livelihoods in the highlands as part of an international team studying the impacts of change on high-elevation communities. Dr. Bowser also serves as an environmental assessment expert as a lead coordinating author for the Global Environmental Outlook report by UN Environment, as a contributing author for the US Fifth National Climate Assessment (published in 2023), and is currently the lead author on the first US National Nature Assessment (NNA1) scheduled to be completed in 2026. Dr. Bowser is a senior fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and chairs the US Committee on the International Union of Biological Societies for the National Academy of Sciences.
“The majority has given us images of who we are—images that blacks don’t use the natural environment, that there’s a cultural history of blacks being intimidated by the natural environment,” she says. “As African American women, we’re taught to think that things like spiders and snakes are scary. But you can work through that, and realize these things are not so scary. You can grow and become much stronger.” - Gillian Bowser, 2006.
Bowser G, Templer PH, Ho SS, Green SA, Hautzinger S, Zhu-Macguire I….. The fierce urgency of now: integrating the youth voice at COP. Front Ecol Environ. 2023;21(4):164-165
Bowser, G., Carmen R Cid, Knowing Your Field Community: Elevating the Human Dimension in Ecological Research and Teaching, Integrative and Comparative Biology, Volume 63, Issue 1, July 2023, Pages 128–135, https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icad036
Bowser, G., & Cid, C. R. (2021). Developing the ecological scientist mindset among underrepresented students in ecology fields. Ecological Applications, 31(6), e02348.
Cooper, C., Hawn, C., Larson, L., Parrish, J., Bowser, G., Cavalier, D., Dunn, R., Haklay, M., Gupta, K., Jelks, N., Johnson, V., Katti, M., Leggett, Z., Wilson, O., & Wilson, S. (2021). Inclusion in citizen science: The conundrum of rebranding - UCL Discovery. Ucl.ac.uk. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10130354/1/Cooper_et_al_Science_20…
Morales, N., Bisbee O’Connell, K., McNulty, S., Berkowitz, A., Bowser, G., Giamellaro, M., & Miriti, M. N. (2020). Promoting inclusion in ecological field experiences: Examining and overcoming barriers to a professional rite of passage. The Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 101(4), e01742.
Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, Gillian Bowser’s exposure to environmental issues or the natural world centered around Prospect and Central Parks—two remarkable urban parks within New York City. However, her New York upbringing did provide her with something that helped her succeed as an African American woman in the environmental field. “New Yorkers are just so darn proud of who they are,” Bowser laughs. “Living there, you’re introduced to so many different things and cultures that it’s easy to see things as challenges rather than barriers.” Bowser attended high school at the LaGuardia School of Music and the Arts in New York City.
Dr. Bowser started at Northwestern University in Chicago, majoring in medical illustration. She soon realized how much she enjoyed biology, which became her major. Her career interest in the environment and conservation was also launched in college when she had a seasonal job at the front desk of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel in Yellowstone National Park. She was introduced to the National Park Service (NPS) by friendly park staff and started as a wildlife biologist at Yellowstone through the NPS in 1980. Bowser continued to work at Yellowstone through the NPS cooperative education program as an undergraduate and beyond; by 1984, she was a full-time employee, researching elk, bison, mice, and butterflies. NPS has sponsored Dr. Bowser’s research ever since, including her master’s work in zoology at the University of Vermont and her doctoral research in population genetics at Badlands National Park through the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Contrary to her original plans, “I’ve been an ecologist and wildlife biologist my whole career,” Dr. Bowser says.
Dr. Bowser says that for minorities especially, learning to view certain circumstances as challenges rather than barriers is critical to success as a minority in the non-diverse environmental field. “The majority has given us images of who we are—images that blacks don’t use the natural environment, that there’s a cultural history of blacks being intimidated by the natural environment,” she says. “As African American women, we’re taught to think that things like spiders and snakes are scary. But you can work through that and realize these things are not so scary. You can grow and become much stronger.”
In her current position, Dr. Bowser works for Colorado State University in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on sustainability, including a new course on the Sustainability of Parks and People. Bowser received a Fulbright Scholarship in ecological indicators from Peru and was an AAAS Science and Diplomacy Fellow with the US Department of State Office of Marine Conservation. She is also part of a team that takes students to the International UN Framework Convention on Climate Change each year. This project introduces students to the diplomacy and science of climate change. As the largest gathering in the world on climate change issues, students meet climate activists from all over the world face-to-face. “the moment of standing face to face with someone from a different country, different cultural values yet fighting for the same cause is so powerful. Students need that personal connection to really grasp the cultural issues associated with climate change and how their own personal actions can be part of a global conversation”(2016).
Dr. Bowser recognizes the importance of minority mentoring, partly because of her experience moving up in the field. Her biggest mentor, spanning her career at NPS, is James.T. Reynolds, the former Superintendent of Death Valley National Park, now retired. “When I started at NPS, there were no blacks,” she says. “He was the first black person I met in a Park Service uniform. He immediately took me under his wing as a mentor and has been a guiding force for me ever since.” Bowser also remembers her graduate school experiences in a very multicultural laboratory. “My PhD advisor focused on tropical ecology and conservation and there were graduate students in her lab from all over the world. We used to have fun arguing about which language lab meetings should be conducted in and who had the best cultural dishes!”. Dr. Bowser says Robert Stanton, the first black NPS director, was also a tremendous role model. She worked as Stanton’s assistant in Washington, D.C., and says that seeing Stanton handle the political pressures accompanying conserving national park lands was tremendously influential. “It was eye-opening to be in D.C. and see the pressures on the parks from all sides,” Bowser says. “And it was amazing to watch Mr. Stanton do his job. He is such a gentleman, so committed and so poised. Most people say he was the most incredible director we ever had.”
Dr. Bowser also credits her major advisor, Bette Loiselle, and post-doc advisor, Jill Baron, for their commitment to science diversity and continuing friendship. Dr. Bowser says that Loiselle “Developed a lab that was so multicultural that we all felt welcomed, challenged, and groundbreaking at the same time. Of fourteen people there, only two were Caucasians. The environment was so supportive for me, to have that background, and to know that you can help people foster that strength” (2016). Baron ran a similarly multicultural lab that thrived on diversity and support.
Dr. Bowser keeps in touch with all her mentors and draws on their examples in her mentoring endeavors. “The people that nurture you throughout your career are just so critical,” she notes. One of my greatest pleasures is running into former students at international conferences! One year, I ran into two former students in the United Arab Emirates—both of which are now leaders in professional positions at NOAA and at Peace Corps!” (2016).
“Experience multicultural settings! Sometimes, as a minority in the sciences, we have to travel overseas to different countries to experience diversity. Such experiences give you the strength to continue back home. One of my most magic moments is always, as soon as I land on the African Continent, regardless of the country, the first thing my local contacts say to me, as an African American, is ‘welcome home’. I am most at home in diverse settings, and that also gives me the inner power to” persevere,” as Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said during her confirmation hearings. That is what I would say to young professionals—persevere—it will be hard, maybe lonely, and may feel overwhelming, but just persevere to make a difference at the end of the day!”- Gillian Bowser, 2024.
Gillian Dr. Bowser. Crowd-sourcing Data sets: Using citizen science to protect national parks from climate change. Fulbright Program. https://www.fulbrightprogram.org/gillian-Dr. Bowser/
Interview conducted by Multicultural Environmental Leadership Development Initiative staff. 2016. University of Michigan – School of Natural Resources and Environment. Ann Arbor, MI.
Taylor, Dorceta (Ed.). 2006. The Paths We Thread: Profiles of the Careers of Minority Environmental Professionals: II. Minority Environmental Leadership Development Initiative, University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment.
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