Karen Hallberg is originally from New Jersey but has made Ohio her home since coming to Ohio State for graduate school. Karen received her master’s in the area of biopsychology in the psychology department at Ohio State, where she was already working with people from EEOB’s Borror Lab of Bioacoustics. Karen then made the transition to EEOB and received her PhD in 2007 working with Dr. Doug Nelson on coyote vocalizations. It might be a surprise to many of us, but coyotes can be found in the Columbus area and Karen was able to work with animals nearby. Her career interest shifted during the years chasing radio-collared coyotes around Ohio and interacting with human residents within her study animals’ home ranges. She regularly found herself addressing real and perceived human-wildlife conflict concerns. The importance of working to resolve such conflicts turned her career interest toward wildlife conservation.
It was during her job search that she realized her doctoral advisor may have been right early on when he expressed concern that her hybrid academic background could make it difficult for her to find work. However, a friend who had finished his doctorate in EEOB several years earlier helped her to realize that a PhD not only demonstrates your knowledge in a particular field but, sometimes more importantly, makes a statement that you are willing to work hard, have the capacity to remain focused and have a large helping of stick-to-itiveness. Along with applying the networking skills she learned during her years in the corporate sector – and that she also employed when applying to graduate programs – she found employment. Since early 2008 she has worked as a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
Karen often misses being immersed in the constant intellectual discussions around evolution and animal behavior, as was life in EEOB. But every day she faces the challenges of applying the knowledge gained through those discussions to the behavior of federally listed animals in Ohio and resolving the human-wildlife conflict between their animals’ life history requirements and impacts of large-scale infrastructure projects.
