S3E9 Amanda Nicholson: The Basics of Crucial Conversations

Wildlife Rehabilitation: From Rescue to Release

In episode 9, Gail Buhl welcomes Amanda Nicholson back to the podcast. If you missed Amanda's first appearance on Wildlife Rehabilitation: From Rescue To Release, check out season 2, episode 13. There she talks with Gail about social media best practices in wildlife rehabilitation.

Amanda serves as Senior Vice President of the Wildlife Center of Virginia. In this episode, she virtually visits Gail to talk about having crucial conversations -- those sometimes difficult or touchy talks we have to have with our partners, bosses, employees, or even someone checking on the status of an animal in rehabilitation. Amanda offers some basic guidance on keeping these conversations structured and simple while offering the other person as much autonomy and dignity as possible. She urges the listener to be especially careful about not filling in the blanks with a (often negative) made-up story explaining someone's behavior or point of view.

This is a must-listen for anyone working in wildlife rehabilitation, because these conversations come up so frequently.

Next episode, Gail talks with wildlife veterinarian Miranda Torkelson about the red fox. It's a fascinating in-depth, 2-part discussion on the red fox's natural history and techniques for caring for it with the goal of release back into the wild. We hope you'll join us!

Special thanks to Partners For Wildlife and The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine. Our executive producer and host is Gail Buhl. Our producer is Kirk Klocke.

To learn more about The Raptor Center, visit Homepage | The Raptor Center (umn.edu). For more on Partners for Wildlife, visit Partners for Wildlife Home | The Raptor Center (umn.edu).