It's about the people: Building a legacy

I first met Dr. Bill Taylor when I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan. At that time, Bill was a Professor and Chair of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife (FW) at Michigan State University (MSU), and my PhD advisor, Dr. David Allan, invited him to a lab meeting. My lab mates and I each gave Bill short explanations of our research projects. I remember his interest in all of them and how he asked questions to dig a little deeper into our work. I was left with a positive impression of the professor from the school down the road, but I had no idea that my next meeting with Bill would be one that would change the course of my career.In February 2005, I was working as a post-doctoral research associate with the Institute for Fisheries Research in Ann Arbor. I attended the annual meeting of the Michigan Chapter of the American Fisheries Society held that year at the Ralph A. MacMullan (RAM) Conference Center in Roscommon. I presented my PhD research, showing how stream habitat in the Huron and Raisin Rivers, southeast Michigan, was being influenced by urban land use and agriculture. After the session, attendees were visiting together in the meeting room. Bill, heading for the door, stopped as he passed me and simply said, “Send me your resume.” I didn't know him well, and I wasn't sure why he wanted my resume, but I was flattered that somebody would ask for it. I e-mailed him the next morning. To skip over much of the following year, by summer 2006, I was working in FW at MSU as a post-doctoral research associate for Dr. Kelly Millenbah, a collaborator of Bill's at the time.Kelly, also a faculty member in FW, had recently taken on a leadership role with MSU's newly-formed Environmental Science and Policy Program (ESPP). She needed short-term assistance in managing her lab and helping her students make progress on their research projects while she worked to get the new program off the ground. I was really excited to work with Kelly and her students in this new capacity, but I found that in those first few months, I was also talking with Bill a lot. To this day, he enjoys reminiscing about how my post-doc cubical was in an office directly across the hall from his own, and how he would call me into his office, sometimes multiple times a day, for short conversations. He would ask me questions like, what's the difference between a river and a lake? Or, what did I hope people would say about me when I retire? Once he asked what I'd like to have written about me on my tombstone (that question really threw me). And he also asked, what did I see myself doing in 5 years, 10 years, and then 20 years?I didn't fully understand the relevance of some of the questions that he was asking, but it was clear that they were part of an evaluation, one that I would later see Bill apply to others when he was getting to know them. I just tried to go with the conversations in the moment, enjoying how Bill would challenge some of my assertions as well as the back and forth of the discussions. But when I'd leave his office, the questions would stick with me. I'd find myself thinking about what I did want professionally and in the long-term for my career, how I hoped to have an impact, and what kind of legacy I wanted to leave behind. I realized after the fact that the questions were more than just about evaluating me; Bill was coaching me to think more critically about my path. This began my mentoring relationship with Bill at the beginning of my professional career at MSU. In one of our conversations, Bill asked me whether or not I thought I could use landscape data to assess the condition of all rivers in the United States. Believing at the time that the question was similar to Bill's other questions, based more on how I'd answer vs. the specific answer I gave, I confidently stated that of course it could done. I explained that it had worked in southeast Michigan for two river systems, so why not apply a similar approach to all rivers of the United States.Those of you who have worked with Bill know that he would sometimes make things happen quickly, aligning seemingly unconnected opportunities to support desired outcomes. By January 2007, I transitioned to an Assistant Professor in FW. Instead of receiving a start-up package, I was linked in to a funded project. The National Fish Habitat Initiative supported by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (now referred to as the National Fish Habitat Partnership, NFHP) called for a comprehensive assessment of all rivers in the US, achievable by using continuous coverages of landscape factors likely to alter fish habitat like urban land use and agriculture, to name a few. My responsibility as a new assistant professor was to manage the effort through MSU, developing a plan for and completing a proof-of-concept assessment by 2010. Doing this would show critics that such an assessment was possible, providing information to help managers make decisions on how to better manager habitat and to help garner support for more refined assessments in the future. Dr. Taylor continued to mentor me through the early days of that project, which proved to be far more political than anything that I had ever been involved with previously. I met with Bill frequently during those years, sharing with him the push back and criticisms that I and a small team were facing. Bill would remind me that I was the one who believed this could be done, so it didn't matter if others disagreed. We'd talk through the criticisms, and he'd minimize them by explaining that, “People are people.” Through these conversations, I knew that Bill had my back, and I just needed to do my best and move forward. These conversations were lessons in perseverance and believing in myself, again, courtesy of Bill.By fall of 2009, the team and I were hitting our stride and were on our way to completing the 2010 assessment for the conterminous US. Based on our initial results, we were also being asked by NFHP leadership to extend our work to Hawaii. At that time, while the assessment was on track, the rest of life felt more difficult. I was going through reappointment, the first stage of evaluation for tenure-stream faculty at MSU. I was also teaching, taking on more responsibility in the department, and beginning another large research project. On a personal note, my marriage was ending, and I had moved from my former home into an apartment. Times were challenging, and I felt like I was barely keeping my head above water. When Bill suggested that we travel to Hawaii in January 2010 to meet members of the Hawaii Fish Habitat Partnership and begin planning for the Hawaii stream assessment, I wasn't excited. I tried to get out of the trip, feeling as if I couldn't take time away from my other responsibilities and that a trip to Hawaii probably wasn't necessary. Fortunately, Bill saw things differently. He was persistent, and I agreed to go.As it turned out, that trip was another defining moment in my career. Because of the initial contacts that I made and because the partnership there saw novelty and value in our proposed ideas for a Hawaii stream assessment (streams were historically understudied in the Pacific islands), I ended up working in Hawaii for three months in summer 2010. Not only did we complete the assessment, but I made contacts that led to multiple additional stream-focused projects that I and other members of my lab contributed to. Personally, being away from Michigan helped me find my way through my divorce. And professionally, as somebody who had only worked in Michigan streams, I benefited from learning about different types of ecosystems. Working on the Hawaii stream assessment and later, on field-based projects focused on streams of Maui and the Big Island, were such important experiences, broadening my view of how rivers function and of varied interests and needs of management.Up to this point, this essay has been about me and how Bill, as my mentor, helped me navigate tough situations, expand my professional networks, and step outside of my comfort zone by believing in myself and taking risks. He did this as a friend, and I will always be grateful to Bill for his mentorship and his friendship. But as some of you know, Bill did similar things for many other people. This became evident in working with Bill over the years, and it will likely be evident through some of the other essays included in this special volume, as others share their stories about Bill's many professional impacts. But additional evidence that shows Bill's commitment to mentoring, the value he placed on friendships, and how he prioritized the importance of professional networks can be seen through other accomplishments and opportunities that he supported that stem from and align with those values and priorities. For the remainder of this essay, I'll describe a few, and in these examples, it's important to note that the achievements described are not Bill's alone but showcase the hard work and inspiration of many other committed colleagues. Bill, however, remains the common thread across all of these examples.Jan Fenske was the first female biologist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR). She wasn't just an exceptional scientist, she was widely known and respected as a mentor to others trying to navigate through their careers. She and her husband Kelley Smith, former Chief of Fisheries Division of MDNR, were also friends and colleagues of Bill. With Jan's early and unfortunate passing, Kelly established an endowment in her honor in FW to reward exceptional students with a fellowship, with details of that fellowship reflecting Bill's commitment to mentoring. More than a monetary award, the fellowship pairs recipients with mentors from either MDNR or the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) so that they can gain insights into agency dynamics and benefit from an agency employee mentoring them through a high-priority project. As of 2024, 19 exceptional individuals have been awarded Fenske Fellowships. These fellows are part of a unique network themselves, and early fellows are now in positions of leadership within agencies or institutions, serving as mentors to newer professionals. Again, this fellowship wouldn't be possible without the generosity and vision of Kelley Smith, but Bill's ideas helped shape this unique opportunity, adding to his legacy of mentoring. You can read more about the fellowship here: https://www.canr.msu.edu/fw/graduate/graduate_fellowship_opportunities/Another experience that Bill helped shape was initiated by another friend and colleague, Bill Demmer. Bill D. is a member of the Boone and Crockett Club and has a passion for engaging others in hunting and fishing, including fly fishing, which takes patience and skill but rewards anglers by placing them in some spectacular rivers. Learning to fly fish can be intimidating; the expertise required to toss a fly on the end of a line in a manner attractive to fish takes practice, and it can be difficult to pick up without coaching or assistance. For women just learning, fishing with experienced anglers can be daunting until they've developed a basic understanding of how to cast a fly. Fly Gals was a program to help bridge that gap by inviting women with limited fly-fishing experience to two training sessions. In the first year, cohorts travelled to a lodge in the Au Sable River basin, where a coach taught them how to handle a rod, tie flies on lines, and perform a few different types of casts. Participants ended the first trip with time on the river, with the goal of becoming more comfortable in the water and practicing the new techniques. In their second year, students return to the Au Sable for a guided fishing trip down the river. Bill helped to shape this program by helping Bill D. identify individuals to participate in Fly Gals. Participants were selected who were at different stages in their careers and who represented different sectors of the natural resources community. Also, both of the Bills helped to ensure that the training experiences were low pressure and fun. In this way, participating in Fly Gals not only sparked a common interest among participants, it shaped and strengthened professional networks for a group of individuals often underrepresented in natural resources.In 1992, Bill became Chair of FW at MSU. By 1993, in collaboration with Dr. John Robertson, a former Chief of Fisheries Division and of Forest Resources Division in MDNR, Bill formed the Partnership for Ecosystem Research and Management (PERM). PERM was a wholly unique arrangement at the time between FW and MDNR. Through this partnership, portions of faculty salaries are supported by MDNR. PERM-supported faculty are evaluated according to university requirements for all faculty, but they have explicit performance expectation to devote some of their research and outreach efforts to issues of high priority to the agency. MDNR benefits from the partnership because they can tap into expertise on matters that agency personnel may not have experience or capacity to address. MSU benefits from the partnership by receiving support for faculty salary lines, historically a limiting factor in creating new positions at MSU. Once PERM was established, Bill was able to use the partnership to help grow FW. He also used it to show leadership in MSU's large agricultural college that PERM was part of the identity of FW, and that the existence of FW was strongly backed by the state of Michigan through support from MDNR. This was a bold and creative move by Bill at a time when discussions were underway by college leadership about merging the small Fisheries and Wildlife Department (with only 13 faculty in 1992) with another unit.The Great Lakes Fishery Commission joined the partnership in 1997, and the agreement was extended to include the Forestry Department at MSU in 2015. Besides its expansion, the longevity of the partnership is another indicator of its overall effectiveness. It's lasted more than 30 years in spite of numerous changes in leadership at the partner institutions, changes in political leanings of state government, and dramatic changes in university, state, and federal budgets over the years. A recent analysis showed that for every dollar invested by MDNR and GLFC into the PERM program, $3 dollars are leveraged by PERM faculty through acquisition of additional grant support, emphasizing the important return on investment of the program. But one of the most important metrics showing the success of PERM are the people who have served as PERM faculty, along with their many graduate students and staff who have contributed to critical outcomes to support natural resources conservation and management in Michigan and beyond. Currently, over 20 faculty members in FW and Forestry are considered PERM faculty, and the priority areas they support are diverse, with examples including understanding fish population dynamics to enhance Great Lakes fisheries, fish species recovery efforts (e.g., lake sturgeon, Arctic grayling), managing invasive organisms like sea lamprey, understanding and managing wildlife diseases, understanding changes in forest composition and coverage, and anticipating effects of climate change on fish and wildlife habitats. Thanks to this unique partnership and through their expertise and accomplishments, PERM faculty have made this program an internationally-recognized success, another testament to Bill's legacy.Bill served as Chair of FW from 1992 to 1999 and again from 2002 to 2008, with the break due to his service as Interim Dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. As mentioned previously, the department had 13 faculty members when Bill began serving as chair, but by the time he left the position, FW had over 50 tenure-stream and fixed-term faculty members. While PERM supported some of that growth, that wasn't the only mechanism that Bill used to for creating and filling faculty positions. For example, in recognition of multidisciplinary needs to solve emerging challenges in natural resources, Bill created positions in partnership with other colleges. Colleagues with expertise in social science were hired with James Madison College for example, and colleagues with expertise in fish and wildlife disease were hired through partnerships with the College of Veterinary Medicine. Bill also attempted to hire accomplished faculty who brought new expertise and experience to FW by attracting them through endowed professorships, and we have multiple endowed professors in the department thanks to Bill's efforts. Also, another type of opportunity that Bill took advantage of with great success were those intended to promote diversity among faculty. Today, FW is one of the most diverse fisheries and wildlife departments in the nation based on gender. While we still have more to do, Bill helped set FW's course through his efforts, which is how a former dean was convinced to create a position that allowed Bill to hire me, a woman working in fisheries.Much more could be said about my friend, mentor, and colleague Dr. Bill Taylor. But what I admire the most about his legacy are his impacts on people. The opportunities he provided, the networks he supported, and his friendship and collegiality with so many have created a community leading and contributing in so many ways to managing and conserving natural resources. In June 2024, I became Chair of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, the first woman to hold the position in the department's 75-year history. This was never a role I envisioned for myself when Bill asked me questions about my future years ago. I doubt that many of us could have the same-sized professional impact as Bill did, but I am trying to follow his approaches of prioritizing people by building networks, supporting a culture of mentoring, and encouraging others to take risks and step outside of their comfort zones. Thank you, Bill, for your mentorship and for showing us what's possible!