Clemson University's Kaitlyn Meadows Wins Prestigious Ecology Policy Award

Kaitlyn E. Meadows, a master’s student at Clemson University, has received the 2024 Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award from the Ecological Society of America. This award provides graduate students with experience in science policy, enabling them to work with lawmakers, federal agency officials, and ecologists at the nexus of science and public policy. Meadows, from Maryville, Tennessee, studies in the Department of Biological Sciences at Clemson.

Meadows shifted her career focus from medicine to ecology during her undergraduate studies at the University of Tennessee. She was part of a research team studying the ecological recovery of areas impacted by the 2016 wildfires in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This project sparked her interest in ecological research and conservation, leading her to pursue a different career path.

At Clemson, Meadows works under Assistant Professor Sharon Bewick. Bewick’s lab conducts studies on ecological topics, including Meadows’ research on how host population density affects the skin microbiomes of organisms. Although her findings were inconclusive, Meadows learned about the complexities of ecological systems and their influencing factors.

Meadows is particularly interested in herpetofauna, which includes reptiles and amphibians. Her enthusiasm for this group was apparent in her coursework and fieldwork, especially during a class on amphibian conservation and management that included a field trip for salamander sampling. She values salamanders for their ecological importance and as indicators of environmental health.

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