UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

INTERVIEW #790
ZEDLER, JOY B.

Zedler, Joy B. (194x- )

Professor of Botany and Aldo Leopold Chair in Restoration Ecology

At UW: 1998-
Interviewed: 2006	
Interviewer: Sandra Pfahler
Length: 1 hour 16 minutes 

Abstract: Early life and education in South Dakota; Undergraduate education at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD; Graduate studies at UW in Botany; Academic career at University of Missouri and San Diego State University; Sexism in the scientific community; her tenure process at SDSU; hiring by UW in 1998 for dual position in Botany and UW Arboretum; Wetlands restoration; funding and grants; collaborative research; climate for female scholars on UW campus; teaching and mentoring graduate students; professional organizations; honors and awards; personal life and recreational activities

Interview Session (July 12, 2006): Tapes 1-2

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:021	Zedler was born in South Dakota in 1940s and grew up on a farm. She has one brother who is two years older.  Her parents did not go to college and she was discouraged from going to college because it was considered a waste of time and money, at that time and place, for young women to do so.
								
00:01:36	She attended a one-room elementary school with one classmate.  Her high school had about 100 students.  An English teacher was an early role model and mentor who helped her get into college at Augustana, in Sioux Falls, SD.

00:03:26	Her parents moved to Rapid City in her senior year and she stayed with relatives.  She worked as secretary and waitress to save money for college.  In college she was a secretary for the Biology Department.

00:05:05	JZ was awarded a college achievement award from Augustana in 2004.	

00:05:36	JZ started college in the two-year secretarial program.  She switched to biology in junior year, with encouragement of biology department chair.  He also talked her into applying for graduate school. One professor at Augustana was a UW alumnus and encouraged her to go to grad school at Madison. She considered attending Oregon State, but she got a TA offer from UW and that made up her mind.

00:07:25	She met her husband Paul Zedler during graduate school years.  They were office mates and he was an Arboretum botanist.  They lived in a trailer in the UW Arboretum as caretakers for two years.

00:08:24	She discusses her graduate school experience and some of the professors that she studied with.  One held sexist attitudes about women in science and discouraged her.  She was not the only woman in the program.  Her fellow graduate students were more helpful to her than her professors.

00:10:07	JZ finished PhD program in four years.  She talks about being “in a hurry” all of her life.  She regrets not taking more courses in graduate school because she later had to learn some material on her own.

00:10:44	JZ goes with husband to University of Missouri for one year and San Diego State University for 29 years.  She discusses her time at San Diego State.  They did not have the resources and facilities to run a strong graduate program.

00:13:01	JZ recollects her tenure process, which she characterizes as a “nightmare.” She was pregnant when applying for tenure track position and this caused additional problems. She talks about the appeal process she had to go through in order to be considered.

00:16:00	JZ returned to a faculty position in Madison in January 1998.  She discusses the factors that drew her back to UW.  She believes her hiring was controversial because of her gender.  UW made a position for her husband Paul in the Institute for Environmental Studies and the UW Arboretum.

00:19:16	She talks about some of the other faculty members at UW when she arrived in 1998.  The UW did not seem that familiar to her after 30 years, even though her current office is in the same building that her graduate student office had been in during the 1960s.

00:21:13	Zedler outlines the specifics of her two positions: half time in Botany Department and half time at UW Arboretum.	She discusses her research in wetlands and some of the legal controversies about wetlands and restoration issues.

00:24:05	She begins talking about problems in Wisconsin ecology and how the Arboretum is working to understand and rectify them.  She describes “seat of the pants” nature of many restoration projects and the importance of using science in restoration.  She talks about “adaptive restoration.”

00:27:35	JZ discusses her “shock” and “amazement” at the condition of Wisconsin wetlands when she arrived at UW.

 00:31:14	End of Side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:31:15	JZ talks about how she obtains funding for her research. She does a lot of grant writing and other fund raising. She talks about federal agencies that have funding or other programs in her field.

00:33:02	She discusses collaboration with other UW departments, including Civil and Environmental Engineering, Limnology, Urban and Regional Planning, Geology. She outlines some reasons why it is harder to get funding in Wisconsin than in California.

00:35:40	Zedler talks about classes she teaches at UW. Because her position is half time, she teaches one course and participates in one seminar per semester. She enjoys teaching; her favorite thing is working with graduate students on thesis projects.

00:38:52	JZ talks about committee and administrative work on campus.  She was on the Graduate Research Committee for Biology.  She talks about competitiveness on among graduate students and faculty on campus.  

00:40:25	She discusses her involvement with the faculty mentor program for new professors.

00:43:37	JZ speaks generally about the climate for women on the UW campus.  She finds the culture in California to be much more positive for women.  She was very surprised when she moved to Wisconsin.  She talks about some examples of sexism from her experience at UW.  She talks about Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute.

00:47:46	She talks about formal and informal opportunities for female professors to network and interact.

00:48:32	JZ relates her involvement with professional organizations. 

00:51:17	She talks about her writing process and experience with publications. She has “a couple hundred” publications.  She finds it “less fun” than it used to be because reviewers today try to rewrite your work too often.

00:55:02	She talks about training graduate students to be good writers. They usually begin the program with poor skills in this area, though they are usually excellent students in general.

00:57:54	JZ lists some of the honors and awards that she has won during her academic career.

00:59:48	She discusses a recent U.S. Supreme Court case concerning wetlands regulation.

01:01:42	She begins to talk about the importance for offering undergraduate students the opportunity to do scientific research.

01:02:16	End of Side.  End of Tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

01:02:18	She continues to talk about undergraduate research.

01:02:40	JZ discusses ethnic and racial diversity at UW.  She would like to see a more diverse student body and more minority students in the sciences.

01:03:32	JZ talks about personal and family. She feels that she does not balance her work and family life very well and too often put her career before her family. She has twin daughters. She talks briefly about their lives and her experience as a mother.

01:08:37	She talks about her own hobbies and recreational activities.  She discusses her work protecting wetlands by fighting urban development.  Most of her travel is work-related.  She has tried to cut back on the number of trips she has to make because she no longer enjoys flying.

01:12:18	She mentions that most of her graduate students do not want to work in a large research university because of the time demands and the possible negative effect on their personal lives.  Students today have more choices.  

01:15:43	End of side.  End of tape.  End of interview.

END