Nancy Targett, marine studies, has been selected as one of 20 fellows of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, an innovative communications training and networking program sponsored by the Ecological Society of America.

"Communicating the scientific facts behind ecological issues is critical," Targett said, "because people are more likely to take responsibility if they see interconnectedness between their actions and the issues."

The primary goal of the Leopold program is to bridge the information gap between public perception and scientific fact regarding environmental issues by training scientists to communicate with the public.

Named for Aldo Leopold, a pioneering environmental scientist and communicator of this century, the program is administered by Oregon State University and supported by a $1.5 million, five-year grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Most of the Leopold fellows are active researchers and educators who represent a variety of disciplines related to environmental sciences.

The focus of the training is to develop the skills to communicate environmental issues effectively to the media as well as to decision-makers in the public and private sectors. The training program, which will fund two additional groups of 20 fellows, has been organized into five critical topic areas that include providing leadership within the scientific community, providing scientific input to the policy process, communicating with the news media, interacting with the corporate sector and working with nongovernmental organizations.

This June, the Leopold fellows will begin training in Oregon with a focus on the news media and business and science communities. The fellows will meet again in September in Washington, D.C., to focus on policy and organizational issues. Next year, the fellows will share their experiences on conducting outreach activities with the new class of fellows in addition to participating in the Ecological Society of America meetings.

Targett, who is based at the Hugh R. Sharp Campus in Lewes, joined the college as a faculty member in 1984, and soon established the Chemical Ecology Laboratory.

Public outreach has been a hallmark of Targett's tenure at the University. She and her students have developed hands-on educational activities for Coast Day, the college's annual open house. She has established a lecture series at the Lewes campus that brings issues of marine science to the public.

Targett also has been a driving force behind the expansion of the college's web site at <www.ocean.udel.edu>.