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Karen L. McKee: Scientist Emeritus
==== Karen L. McKee is an expert in the field of wetland plant ecology and a great advocate for science communication by scientists through the use of multimedia skills. ====

Biography
McKee has always seemed to have had the idea from a very young age that she would be a scientist one day. Her appreciation and love of nature came from her father who always seemed to be able to answer her questions and was able to show her how fascinating nature was. Later, she became fascinated with science fiction and the race for space. She distinctly recalls her elementary school playing the “beeping” of Sputnik over the loudspeaker and later watching the first steps on the moon on live TV. That excitement of embarking on a voyage into the unknown was inspiring to her and many others of her generation. While McKee had grown up in a very rural area in Mississippi in the 50's and 60's, this had given her access to nature. She would spend many hours roaming the countryside in and around her family’s farm collecting insects, plants, fossils and other things that interested her. She noted that the backyard was forest, pasture, pond, and creek–a landscape filled with a variety of environments and life forms. She learned many skills from her father during hunting and fishing trips that served her as an ecologist today: observational skills, orienteering, animal tracking, plant cultivation and many others. Her parents were not educated and did not always understand her interest in science, but they supported her in pursuing a career in this field. However, she did not have the resources or encouragement to pursue a career in science. She worked at a local hospital to pay for her college tuition and living expenses, but her biggest challenge was overcoming the prejudices at the time against females in science. In fact, when she was in college she was sometimes the only female in the class and felt she had to justify my presence in a male-dominated field. For example, male classmates tried to get her removed from a dendrology class because she “would slow the class down on field trips”. However, she was grateful that most of her instructors were supportive, and the prejudices that she encountered early on simply stimulated her to excel at everything. She did not go straight through academic training, but instead worked at various jobs during and in between each degree. She had spent a couple of years working as a laboratory technician after my B.S. and also after her M.S. degree. Then she had worked as a research associate, a soft-money position that she funded through grants. While working full-time at a university, she finished my Ph.D. and later took a job with the U.S. Geological Survey where she has been for the past ten years. She has also stated that "I would most like people to remember my 1. dedication to setting and maintaining high standards for myself as a scientist and never compromising my ideals and 2. advocacy of women in science."

Educational Background
McKee has a B.S in zoology. McKee also has a master's degree in botany and a Ph.D. in Botany from Louisiana State University, LA, USA in 1993.

Career
McKee had worked with the U.S Geological Survey but is now retired. She has conducted her research on topics such as adaptations of plants to stressful environments and effects of elevated CO2, climate change, sea-level rise, and hurricanes on wetlands for forty-five years. Dr. McKee's research focuses on three major areas: constraints on plant growth and distribution, large-scale disturbance/restoration ecology, and wetland plant adaptations. Her research has spanned multiple international locations, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Belize, Panama, Honduras, Brazil, The Netherlands, Denmark, China, Australia, and New Zealand. Dr. McKee is also a co-founder and trustee of The Wetland Foundation (http://thewetlandfoundation.org), a non-profit organization that provides grants to students of wetland science. McKee has stated that her work is reported through technical reports, journal articles, book chapters, and conference presentations. She had decided to create videos and online conferences sharing her scientific information due to her viewing of other informal videos on platforms such as Youtube about science matters. She also felt that scientists were not keeping up with these multimedia tools and getting the necessary information out there. She began this journey in 2008 and published a website and video channel in 2012 about her findings and help for others on how to use this technology. She is also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University.

Honors and Awards
Over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and books have published her scientific findings and she has also created peer-reviewed videos regarding her research. She is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences and has delivered more than 150 technical presentations and seminars. She also authored the book, The Scientist Videographer, to help promote science communication.