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Public engagement

Outreach & engagement

Wildlife disease is a public issue. Getting the science out of the journal and into the hands of managers, birders, and the general public is part of the job.

Why it matters

Communicating findings about bird flu helps guide management and decision-making, and helps people know what to worry about and what not to.

Avian influenza sits squarely in the middle of a One Health problem: wild birds, poultry, mammals including dairy cattle, and occasionally people. That makes accurate, calm public communication a genuine research output, not an extracurricular. We work to give policymakers, public health officials, wildlife managers, and the public practical, honest information, including about uncertainty.

In the media

Popular press

The lab’s avian influenza work has been covered by Scientific American, The New York Times, NPR, Audubon, CNN, and others.

All press coverage

Media inquiries:

Talks

Public talks & webinars

Recordings of talks given to birding groups, Audubon chapters, and the public.

Webinar

The Untold Toll of Avian Influenza on Bird Populations

Presented by Johanna Harvey for the Young, Gifted and Wild About Birds series, Connecticut Audubon Society. Virtual.

Watch the talk

Getting involved

Talks, teaching, and community science

Public talks

Johanna gives talks to birding clubs, land trusts, Audubon chapters, and community groups across Rhode Island and New England. Get in touch if your group would like one.

Manager & agency workshops

Structured decision making and disease-risk workshops with state and federal partners, translating surveillance data into management options.

K–12 and campus

Classroom visits, campus events, and hands-on activities that introduce students to wildlife disease ecology and how science informs policy.

Reporting sick or dead birds

If you find multiple sick or dead wild birds, contact your state wildlife agency (in Rhode Island, the RI Department of Environmental Management). Do not handle birds with bare hands.

Community science

Observations submitted to platforms like eBird and iNaturalist genuinely feed into how we understand host distributions and timing. Keep them coming.

Open science

Code and data are shared where licensing allows. See GitHub.

“I consider myself fortunate to have found science. Mentors showed me a world I did not know existed; I want to open that world up to others.”
Johanna Harvey