Biographical sketch
I am a communications scholar interested in the way we think and talk about conservation problems. Before I became a communications scholar, I reported for two Alaska newspapers, writing primarily about fisheries and other environmental topics. I also worked on several outreach projects including an Alaska Department of Fish and Game effort to promote public understanding of salmon monitoring programs, a World Health Organization book documenting the impacts of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources wetland publication series. I now teach at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where I serve as an assistant professor of environmental communication in the Department of Environmental Studies. Before starting my position at SUNY-ESF, I served assistant professor of environmental and science communication in the journalism program at the University of Central Florida.
Curriculum vitae
Research interests
My research focuses on science and environmental issues, particularly as they involve communication, policy, and society. I have worked on a broad range of collaborative survey and experimental research projects, including interdisciplinary work with conservation researchers and practitioners. Some of my latest research explores the use of metaphor in conservation, how land conservation NGOs make decisions about sharing mapping information and what the public thinks about proposals to use gene editing in wildlife as a tool for conservation.
Academic publications
Journal articles
Kohl, P.A., & Warner, S. (2022) Public Communication Practices and Beliefs Among Conservation Scientists and Practitioners in a Midwest U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Program. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management. doi.org/10.3996/JFWM-20-077
Kohl, P.A., & Wardropper, C. (2022) Knowledge of majority scientific agreement on anthropogenic climate change predicts perceived global risk better than perceived personal risk. Journal of Risk Research, 1-13. doi: 10.1080/13669877.2022.2028883
Kohl, P.A., & Stenhouse N. (2021) 12 Years Left: How a Climate Change Action Deadline Influences Perceptions and Engagement. Environmental Communication, 15(7), 986-1000. doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2021.1941175
Kohl, P.A., Collins S.J., & Eichholz (2020) Metaphor, trust and support for non-native species control. Environmental Communication, 1-14 doi:10.1080/17524032.2019.1703779
Howell, E. L., Kohl, P., Scheufele, D. A., Clifford, S., Shao, A., Xenos, M. A., & Brossard, D. (2020). Enhanced threat or therapeutic benefit? Risk and benefit perceptions of human gene editing by purpose and heritability of edits. Journal of Risk Research, 25(2), 139-155. doi:10.1080/13669877.2020.1806911
Wardropper, C. B., Mase, A. S., Qiu, J., Kohl, P., Booth, E. G., & Rissman, A. R. (2020). Ecological worldview, agricultural or natural resource-based activities, and geography affect perceived importance of ecosystem services. Landscape and Urban Planning, 197, 103768. doi: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2020.103768.
Kohl, P.A., Brossard, D., Scheufele, D.A., & Xenos, M.A. (2019) Public views about gene editing wildlife for conservation. Conservation Biology, 33: 1286-1295. doi:10.1111/cobi.13310
Rissman, A. R., Morris, A. W., Kalinin, A., Kohl, P. A., Parker, D. P., & Selles, O. (2019). Private organizations, public data: Land trust choices about mapping conservation easements. Land Use Policy, 89, 104221.doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104221
Kohl, P. (2017). Reclaiming Hope in Extinction Story Telling. Hastings Center Report, 47, S24-S29. doi:10.1002/hast.748
Dunwoody, S., Kohl, P. (2017) Using Weight-of-Experts Messaging to Communicate Accurately about Contested Science. Science Communication, 39(3), 338-357. doi:10.1177/1075547017707765
Rissman, A., Kohl, P. & Wardropper, C. (2017). Public support for carrot, stick, and no-government water quality policies. Environmental Science and Policy, 76, 82-89. doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2017.04.012
Kohl, P. (2017). Using De-extinction to Create Extinct Species Proxies; Natural History not Included. Ethics, Policy & Environment,1-3. doi:10.1080/21550085.2017.1291832
Kohl, P. A., Kim, S. Y., Peng, Y., Akin, H., Koh, E. J., Howell, A., & Dunwoody, S. (2016). The influence of weight-of-evidence strategies on audience perceptions of (un)certainty when media cover contested science. Public Underst Sci, 25(8), 976 – 991. doi:10.1177/0963662515615087
Kohl, P., O’Rourke, A., Schmidman, D., Dopkin, W., & Birnbaum, M. (2005). The Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake and Tsunami of 2004: The Hazards, Events, and Damage. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 20(6), 355-363. doi:10.1017/S1049023X00002880
Media & outreach work
Radio broadcasts
High-tech fish bell to track Nushigak Chinook salmon
Alaska Fisheries Report KMXT 100.1 FM
(see minute 7 of report)
Fish wheels and tagging, managing Yetna River sockeye
Alaska Fisheries Report KMXT 100.1 FM
(see minute 8 of report)
Tracking Radio-tagged Kenai River King Salmon
Alaska Public Media
Monitoring Wisconsin’s
freshwater mussels
WORT 89.9 FM
Newspaper articles
Casting cool eye on the sea —
New cameras will enable monitoring of inlet ice
Redoubt Reporter
Muddy waters —
Overactive year in natural turbidity stirs up challenges for river water monitoring
Redoubt Reporter
Dyeing to count —
Fish and Game tests new way to estimate smolt numbers
Redoubt Reporter
Guest blog posts
Communicating Conservation Goals if Extinction is no Longer Forever
Center for Humans & Nature
Rewilding the Badger Army Ammunition Plant
Edge Effects
Book project
Birnbaum, Marvin, Supriya Bezbaruah, and Patrice Kohl. Tsunami 2004: A Comprehensive Analysis. World Health Organization, Regional Office for South-East Asia, 2013. ISBN 978-92-9022-435-8
Wildlife monitoring publication series
Monitoring your wetland, a primer to site-level monitoring activities for volunteer coordinators
University of Wisconsin Extension Environmental Resource Center