DUBOIS – Melinda Hughes, president of the DuBois-based national environmental non-profit Nature Abounds, recently presented at the United Nations European Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
She spoke as a presenter to conference participants from all over the globe Dec. 14 about “Incorporating Volunteers into Citizen Science Programs.”
Citizen science is the term used for when volunteer help is used to aid scientists collect data to be used in analyzing various environmental indicators, such as pollution and climate change.
Hughes has managed volunteer initiatives for more than 20 years and has been involved with citizen science programs since 1999.
Among the citizen science programs she has managed and developed are FrogWatch USA and the Senior Environment Corps.
Since co-founding Nature Abounds in 2008, she has also created and managed two signature citizen-science opportunities, Watch the Wild and IceWatch USA, with the latter now with sister programs in Canada and Germany.
In addition to presenting in Geneva about citizen-science, Hughes has also presented on the subject at conferences in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Washington, D.C., Oregon and Colorado and works with others in the field from across the United States and around the globe.
While in Geneva, she also toured CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and the home to the particle collider. Here, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe.
Hughes holds a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s of Environmental Law and Policy from the Vermont Law School. She resides in the DuBois area.
