Podcast

PODCAST | Bringing Home Americans Stranded Abroad due to COVID-19

Chris Parsons
Ambika Bumb with her father and daughter

Dr. Ambika Bumb is a Science & Technology Policy Fellow working in the Crisis Management and Strategy Office at the U.S. Department of State. Within this office, she was part of several tasks forces that played major roles during the coronavirus pandemic, including the Repatriation Task Force that brought home American citizens stranded abroad during the early months of the pandemic. This repatriation effort was unprecedented in many ways but was executed quickly and efficiently. For their work, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan resolution commending the Crisis Management and Strategy Office and the Department of State presented with the Distinguished Honor Award. In this episode Dr. Bumb talks about the challenges that she and her colleagues faced while bringing Americans home, and about how diverse parts of her academic and professional life seemed to converge in her work at the Department of State.

Participants

 Ambika Bumb, Ph.D., 2019-20 Executive Branch Fellow at State Department

Host

 Philip Ko, Ph.D., 2019-20 Executive Branch Fellow at National Science Foundation, Twitter: @PhilKo19

Producers        

Philip Ko, Ph.D., 2019-20 Executive Branch Fellow at National Science Foundation, Twitter: @PhilKo19

Chris Parsons, Ph.D., 2020-22 Executive Branch Fellow at National Science Foundation. Twitter: @ECMParsons

Executive Producer      

Philip Ko, PhD., 2019-20 Executive Branch Fellow at National Science Foundation

Twitter: @PhilKo19

Image Credit: Borodin photography/ Wikipedia creative commons

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This blog does not necessarily reflect the views of AAAS, its Council, Board of Directors, officers, or members. AAAS is not responsible for the accuracy of this material. AAAS has made this material available as a public service, but this does not constitute endorsement by the association.

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Authors

Chris Parsons

Parsons, Chris: Fellowship 2020-2021 Parsons, Chris: Fellowship 2021-2022

Dr. Chris Parsons has been involved in whale and dolphin research for over two decades and has been involved in projects on every continent. Dr. Parsons is currently a communications and analysis specialist for the Oceans Division of the National Science Foundation and an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow. 

Before that he was a consultant for a number of environmental groups in Washington DC, consulting on marine wildlife, conservation and science communication and policy issues. He was also an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Science & Policy at George Mason University , in addition to being the Director of their undergraduate program in environmental science.

He’s a member of the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), has been involved in organizing four of the International Marine Conservation Congresses (IMCC) (the world’s largest academic marine conservation conference) and two of the International Congresses for Conservation Biology. He was a Governor of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) for nearly a decade and also served two terms as the president of the SCB Marine Section and was on the Board of Directors of the American Cetacean Society as their Conservation Chair. He is currently on the Board of Directors of both the Society for Marine Mammalogy and the SCB Conservation Marketing & Engagement Working Group.

​In addition, Dr. Parsons has published over 170 scientific papers and book chapters and has written a textbook on marine mammal biology & conservation and co-edited a book on marine wildlife conflict resolution.