Mar 18
How Social Science Complements Natural Sciences, and what ‘Science’ means Out of College: A chat with Elizabeth Smith, The Nature Conservancy’s Lead Social Scientist, and Economist
Thirty minutes was insufficient for a dog-mom social scientist and economist, Elizabeth Smith, to talk about finding her niche as a human behavior-curious in a space that questions entirely different subjects (e.g., wildlife, land, and water resources). Once, during self-introductions in her Ph.D. class in social sciences, she confided to me, she was ridiculed for saying “I want to work at [as someone with a social science background] the Nature Conservancy,” “They would not hire somebody like us,” they told her. Years later, two social scientists (one in practice)— Elizabeth, now 10 years at the Conservancy, and I, now 1 month in the same workplace — chat about the path towards and the use of this background in an organization that believes people and nature thrive:
“Senior year is an exciting time,” Liz looked up smiling as she tries to recall, “it’s also overwhelming.” She described her early 20s self as a job seeker who did not care what job she did — with little to no support from home or outside help relative to how she sees the young generation now has access to, Liz had to tumble from one place to another.
She started off as a Business major, to which I loved what she said next, “I felt tortured, I grew up in NYC, which gave me access to so much culture and art, and being a business major just felt so narrowed.” So she did become practical afterward: “I switched to communications because I can never not use it — it touches on so many fields.”
And so, Liz touched on many fields out of college — the Queens-native moved to San Francisco, CA and became a recruiter, then entered the video game world. She was making a great paycheck straight out of college, yet the young mission-driven Liz craved for something more meaningful beyond checking off work hours. She volunteered at a wildlife rehab center where she eventually found the uninvited duty of environmental conservation.
“You have to know your important sacrifices,” Liz opened about her career shift — “I went back to school to do my sciences.” — or perhaps career shifts “I thought I was going to vet school but then 9/11 happened.” Her plans to study veterinary internationally turned to a could have been, which also meant a space for a new could be: “I wanted to be closer [to home], so I took Conservation Policy to Columbia for masters. It’s how decisions get made — by policymakers and economists, and I was a Math nerd.” Liz mentioned an interesting course subject, Natural Resource Economics.
If there’s anything that Liz wanted me to remember about figuring, she emphasized, it’s that there are elements and values that influence the big decisions: finance, proximity, and flexibility. How much financial resource can you live with? How close would you be working with people? How much time constraint can you take?
“When you are trying to solve problems on the ground, the question emerges…You have to be willing to face real-life pressure-cooker conditions, you have 6 weeks, what’dya got?”
Landing at the Conservancy as a social scientist, she has been having the pleasure to work with smart people. Curiosity leads her as part of her job, questioning the problem we are trying to solve in a human-centered manner, as natural scientists around her try to problematize at surface level.
Although one thing she learned fast, applied science used in organizations is different than peer-reviewed science, which she was very familiar with through her Ph.D. “When you are trying to solve problems on the ground, the question emerges…You have to be willing to face real-life pressure-cooker conditions, you have 6 weeks, what’dya got?”
Elizabeth Smith is a long-time runner and yogi and traveler.
