Sara Varón Echeverri

Sara Varón Echeverri, BA, MA, is a PhD Candidate in Health Information Science at Western University.

Her research interests include the making of climate projections and the communication of these climate projections to a broader public. She is interested in how we come to assess science based on values and interests that go beyond science, and how this shapes the trust we have in scientists. Her aim is to help answer how we can make the best scientific information possible to base our decisions and actions on credible and trustworthy information, while also expecting this information to be understandable and approachable. 

Connect with her at svaron@uwo.ca.
  

Tell us a little about your current research. What questions or problems are you interested in?

My research is focused on climate change as both a scientific and social complex problem. We don't only want to know about climate change because we are scientifically curious, we want to know about climate change because we would like to prepare ourselves for what is coming, and these two are very different problems. Solving one problem might not solve the other, and vice versa. So where do we start tackling this issue? 

My research concentrates on bridging the gap between wanting the most precise projections with the information that we have and wanting these to be the most applicable projections with the information that we need. I aim to describe how best can we communicate scientific results to generate significant changes in the communities' efforts to decelerate climate change. 

 

How does your research connect to issues or challenges outside of academia?

Because my research directly involves the impact on different stakeholders, it is very important to other actors involved like industries and non-profits can benefit from the outputs. My research is directly intertwined with how best we can incentivize grassroots projects, how the community gets together to act towards a goal, and how well the scientific sources are equipped to inform those actions. Beyond academia, my project intends to learn from the already pre-existing movements that motivate people. After all, it is impossible to know how best to understand what all stakeholders need without asking other stakeholders. 

Why are you interested in exploring a research partnership with a not-for-profit, public-sector organization, or industry partner?

I am interested in working with a non-academic partner for several reasons. Because of the nature of my project, I would like to provide my time and knowledge to an organization that bases its decisions on science and research but communicates it to the general public. I have a lot of experience managing conflicting expectations from different stakeholders within academia, and I want these skills to be applied in other scenarios outside of academia. Moreover, I am interested in contributing to a project that is already in motion, and for my work to contribute to something bigger than myself.  
 

What skills or research expertise could you bring to a collaborative research project?

I have had research-related and not-academic experiences that have allowed me to learn how to work with interdisciplinary teams and stakeholders. Working with a diverse team has taught me how best to handle difficult discussions about expectations, and how best to moderate meetings so that all stakeholders involved successfully achieve their goals while also advancing the collective objective. 

Regarding my research-related experiences, I have worked both as a trainee but also as a main researcher in interdisciplinary teams and think tanks. This has permitted me to learn about the timelines of knowledge production and the intricate complications of conducting research for different areas of knowledge. Due to this, I have learned to write reports and present on different topics related and unrelated to my own research. 

Regarding my non-academic experiences, I have worked on data collection for post-secondary quality assurance evaluation, which means that I have done web scraping, in-person surveys, and document analysis to extract the information required to properly assess programs. Moreover, I also created simple code in Python, R, and Excel to analyze this data. I also have experience writing reports and grants for governmental agencies, taking into account the information gathered and analyzed. 

 

What is one question or challenge you would be excited to explore with a community or organizational partner? 

I would be excited to explore the challenge of successfully communicating scientific information to the general public to motivate climate action or to influence policy decisions. This could look many different ways. I am interested in understanding who volunteers their time, why they do it, and what the organization do that makes their contribution successful. Moreover, I want to better understand the challenge of communicating with institutions like the local government when trying to organize a green project and what type of problems one could encounter. I want to contribute to the way that we discuss this problem because I believe that, with the right prompting, we can encourage different groups into acting.