Kathleen Alexander brings a One Health vision to conservation efforts in Botswana | VTx
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Virginia Tech students come to Botswana almost every year to participate in Alexander’s eight-week field course, Wildlife Health Immersion in Africa: Capture, Rehabilitation, and Forensics. Additionally, numerous professors and graduate students have used the CARACAL facility to conduct research in the region.
Alexander has also brought African American high school students to Botswana to work with local students and researchers while learning about wildlife conservation efforts in Africa. With funding from a National Science Foundation grant aimed at encouraging minority student participation in the biological sciences, Alexander expects to host a third group of high school students at CARACAL this year.
“If a student has only ever been in a classroom, how do they know where they want to go next?” said Alexander. “An experience like this one is valuable in that it helps students answer that question more effectively while recognizing the importance of service.”
In Botswana, Alexander founded the Virginia Tech/CARACAL Community Environmental Educators Program, a joint initiative which trains young people across 13 schools in the district to work as environmental educators and present on wildlife research and public health initiatives to local primary schools. She also launched a Wildlife Ambassadors Program to encourage young students to be environmental advocates in their schools, encouraging leadership in conservation.
“We can create a new culture of conservation by allowing young people to have power and a leadership role in environmental advocacy,” Alexander said. “We need to transform the educational process and allow confidence to be built alongside knowledge if we are going to realize true diversity in the sciences.”
Bringing a One Health perspective to conservation challenges
Alexander’s work in Botswana is grounded in the One Health concept, which aims to integrate multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals, and the environment.
“Dr. Alexander’s work with government and community leaders in Botswana is unparalleled,” said Guru Ghosh, vice president for Outreach and International Affairs. “Her study abroad programs and research projects have allowed students to learn that research and education in the developing world are complex and multifactorial. She is preparing the next generation of citizen scientists to embrace and thrive in a complex and globally interdependent world.”
For Alexander, the relationship between the research that scientists do and the ways that knowledge has the power to change lives and transform the world is crucial to the relationship between Virginia Tech and Botswana.
“The Ut Prosim (That I May Serve) mandate really speaks to me,” Alexander said. “Through the program in Botswana, Virginia Tech students and faculty are able to collaborate on and contribute to the many challenges confronting the global landscape.”
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