Bee Redfield, a PhD student working with the Tropical Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center, is expanding her impact into the engagement realm with a new service learning graduate assistantship.
Redfield is working on her PhD in wildlife science under Drs. Doug Jacobs and Barny Dunning, returning
to West Lafayette after completing her undergraduate degree at Purdue in 2005. She is studying the role that native birds play in forest restoration, following previous work with leopards, apes, and black bears among other species in more than 20 years in wildlife conservation and care. Redfield has worked in both lab and field research as well as veterinary technology, zookeeping, entomology and outreach.
Redfield, who earned previous graduate degrees in human resources management with an emphasis in training and development (Keller Graduate School 2011) and biology with an emphasis in extension (Miami Ohio 2019), will be working in the Purdue Office of Engagement with Dr. Lindsey Payne.
“I am excited about getting to directly help our communities by working with faculty and community partners in our service-learning programs,” Redfield said. “I love engaging with the public and helping others learn about how they can provide community education and assistance too, either as students or by incorporating service-learning into curriculum as faculty members. This role will allow me to work with students, faculty and community partners in a holistic way to create these partnerships.”
In her new role, Redfield will work on service-learning programs, community engagement, strategic communications and the web presence for the office, including writing newsletters. She also will be planning and executing the yearly Engagement Summit.
“Bee will be an excellent asset to our team given her previous training and work experience,” Payne said. “We look forward to leveraging her talents and skills as she creates and manages our strategic communications efforts and helps strengthen and deepen our partnership programming.”
Redfield hopes to continue teaching in FNR as she prepares for her qualifying exams in the spring and her dissertation defense after that, all while taking on this new role in engagement.
