Dr Alison Styring
Study Abroad Student from the University of Indiana (1993)

US Wildlife Biologist Dr Alison Styring (nee Robinson) is a classic example of the value of Study Abroad programs. In fact, Dr String credits the Study Abroad year she spent at UOW in 1993 as having a profound influence on her studies and future career direction.

A Biology student at the University of Indiana, Bloomington at the time, her trip to Australia convinced her to focus on ecology and the study of birds – a decision that took her to the rainforests of Malaysia for her PhD and later to a job as a wildlife biologist at Disney World in Florida.

Dr Styring is now in her “dream job” – a senior Faculty position at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington – and has fond memories of her time at UOW.

“Indiana University had a great Study Abroad program with UOW,” she said. “I had always wanted to see Australia, and I loved my time at Wollongong. The campus was great, the classes were very engaging, and the social aspects of student life were really fun.

“My time at UOW and in Australia had a profound influence on my career. I really caught the travel bug and wanted to learn more about other parts of the world in depth. I became particularly interested in learning about wildlife while I hiked and backpacked around Australia. The courses I took at UOW weren’t in the sciences - they included a great Australian history course, Literature, and Sociology - but they really helped me understand more about Australia, and that is very important in any career in which you work in another country or with people from diverse backgrounds.”

“As I neared the completion of my Biology degree, I decided that I wanted to be an ecologist and study birds. Travelling and wildlife-watching in Australia was an important part of this decision. I applied to the PhD program at Louisiana State University because of its emphasis on tropical bird biology, and I conducted my dissertation research in Malaysia studying the effects of logging on cavity nesting birds in the rainforest.”

After finishing her PhD, Dr Styring worked as a Wildlife Biologist at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida where she was in charge of establishing long-term wildlife monitoring of native animals on a large conservation area at Walt Disney World. The conservation area comprised a variety of habitats including swamp forest, marsh and upland scrub with diverse fauna. She also established monitoring projects for alligator, birds, butterflies, deer and gopher tortoises.

In August 2005 she joined Evergreen State College in Olympia, where she plans to continue her Malaysian research and also conduct comparative research in the temperate rainforests of western Washington, with the goal of providing practical insight into forest management practices.