As the Wildlands Ecologist at Northeast Wilderness Trust, Shelby is in charge of the long-term care of nearly 80,000 acres of wilderness across six states. She also selects and justifies new projects. On any given day, she might be in the field collecting data for an ecological report on a property NEWT is working to conserve in southern New Hampshire, monitoring a wilderness preserve in the mountains of Maine, plotting ways to close ecologically sensitive areas to public access in an Adirondack preserve, or writing monitoring reports at her desk in central Vermont.

Peter is the Global Director of Natural Climate Solutions Science for The Nature Conservancy. He leads a team of scientists who conduct research to inform the design and implementation of nature-based strategies for mitigating climate change. For example, he investigates the climate and biodiversity impacts of forest management, and he's working with field programs in Indonesia, Mexico, Gabon, and elsewhere to measure the climate performance of reduced-impact logging. Peter is trained as a field forester, forest ecologist, botanist, and geospatial scientist, and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Gabon, Africa.

Brad is the Director of The Conservation Fund's Alaska Office. He and his team oversee land conservation projects that have protected over 300,000 acres of wild land on the Last Frontier. They negotiate deals, raise funds, and coordinate the stewardship of protected areas with state and federal agencies, Native communities, and other land trusts. They get their hands dirty on the largest dam removal project ever attempted in Alaska and an ambitious effort to eradicate invasive Elodea before it invades the state's salmon systems. With the last vast wildlands at stake, Brad puts all his FN skills to work to keep the pieces, patterns, and processes intact.

Nathaly is the Deputy Climate Resilience Officer for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. She and her team implement statewide resilience policy and programs related to sea-level rise and other climate impacts. Although she rarely has the chance to use her field skills on the job, the socioecological component of the curriculum (the former Ecological Planning track, now part of the FN Program) remains invaluable. She is dedicated to building healthy and resilient communities, diversifying the environmental movement, and accelerating equity and environmental justice action.

Chris is an ecologist and educator in Puerto Rico working in tropical forest ecology, social-ecological systems, and environmental education. As the Lead Scientist with the Friends of El Yunque Foundation, he directs El Yunque National Forest's Citizen Science Vegetation Monitoring Project and collaborates with non-profits, governmental, and academic organizations as well as local communities to promote conservation stewardship and ecological literacy. He's also leading efforts to establish Puerto Rico as a Regional Center of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development. Through his work, Chris aims to promote holistic and regenerative relations between people and place.

As the Supervisory Botanist at Olympic National Park in Washington, Janet oversees vegetation programs on forest health, invasive plants, and revegetation of disturbed lands. She ensures that park projects are consistent with environmental laws and don’t result in the spread of invasive plants or impact rare plants. Her primary function is to write proposals, manage budgets, coordinate hiring, and develop partnerships. She also coordinates projects that have a cultural nexus, like removing hazardous trees from campgrounds, restoring controlled fire in areas traditionally used for tribal foraging, replanting historic landscapes, or conserving homesteaders' fruit trees. Never a dull moment!

Neahga is Director of the Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project on an island in Vietnam, aimed at saving one of the world’s most endangered animals, the Cat Ba langur — fewer than 70 of these primates remain — as well as protecting the biodiversity of the archipelago. His exciting, albeit sometimes exhausting, job involves convincing ex-hunters to join anti-poaching teams, helping to draft national legislation, establishing environmental education programs in local schools, encouraging local politicians to promote sustainable development, providing support for national park rangers, and conducting field work to monitor the langurs and the many other imperiled species endemic to the region.

Becky is Regional Director of Mass Audubon’s west region. She oversees 19 wildlife sanctuaries and all programming and partnerships, doing everything from land protection and habitat management to education and strategic planning. Some of her most rewarding projects have been interdisciplinary collaborations that engage new audiences in conservation work, such as with Tanglewood, Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, and The Mount (Edith Wharton's estate). Natural history, problem-solving, fundraising, creative thinking and lots of other Field Naturalist skills have converged in Becky's multifaceted career in the best possible way.

As the Natural Community Ecologist for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, Bob conducts state-wide inventories of natural communities and identifies opportunities to protect biodiverse, landscape-scale features, such as large habitat blocks and wildlife corridors. He works with landowners and the general public to conserve important natural communities and reviews development projects to minimize environmental impacts. In his previous role at the state, he helped develop Vermont Conservation Design, a comprehensive scientific vision for an intact, connected, and diverse natural landscape that guides the the state and other conservation organizations.

Charley is a consulting ecologist who conducts plant and wildlife surveys and natural resource inventories for various nonprofits, state agencies, and universities throughout New England. He is the lead author of the field guide Tracks & Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates, which won a National Outdoor Book Award, the e-book Leafminers of North America, and the insect blog BugTracks. He has published nearly 40 scientific papers, including the description of over 60 new insect species. For many years he has co-taught an “Ecology through Animal Tracking” course and now teaches field seminars on insect tracks and sign at the Eagle Hill Institute in Maine.

As an Environmental Scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Julia leads an effort to develop a Conservation Strategy for the Sierra Nevada red fox. Unlike its familiar eastern cousin, this elusive carnivore lives in remote mountain wildernesses, and only two small and isolated populations remain in the state. Julia splits her time between debating management recommendations with an advisory team of 25 scientists and skiing over alpine passes to deploy cameras for occupancy surveys. She is ever hopeful for a glimpse of that characteristic white-tipped tail.

Based in Nairobi, Kathleen is a consultant and partner at Conservation Capital, focusing on increasing revenue for wildlife conservation and management of protected areas. She has decades of experience in integrated large-landscape conservation and was a Vice President at the African Wildlife Foundation for a number of years. She has helped create new conservation areas, improved management of existing areas, established co-management arrangements with African governments, and designed innovative models for community integration in conservation. Before moving overseas in 2007, Kathleen was Executive Director of the Stowe Land Trust and co-founded the Northeast Wilderness Trust.

Sean works as the Staff Naturalist at North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier, Vermont, where he connects new audiences to nature while advancing the expertise of those who already have a lifelong interest. A "typical" week may include a black ash basketry course led by Abenaki weavers, an adventure to pick and press feral apples in an abandoned 19th-century orchard, or a guest lecture on tropical hummingbirds. Sean directs Biodiversity University, a field seminar series, and coordinates NBNC's bird banding and amphibian migration monitoring programs. In the shoulder seasons, he guides NBNC's Adventures Afar excursions to ecotourism destinations around the world.

Rosemary is a science writer and cartoonist. This non-traditional career path has taken her to weird and wonderful places. She gives keynotes at birding festivals, writes for Audubon, and publishes comics in Ranger Rick. Her Bird and Moon nature comics are collected in a 2019 ALA Great Graphic Novel for Teens. She co-wrote the New York Times best-selling Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid and published a graphic novel about space. She served as a judge for a festival of bad ad-hoc hypotheses — twice. She botanizes whenever she can, and her nature experiences inspire comics and stories.

Dave is a Branch Chief for the New Mexico Ecological Services Field Office with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He oversees the Large Rivers Recovery and Restoration Programs, focusing on the San Juan River and the Rio Grande, and supervises nine very talented biologists. The San Juan River has two federally endangered fish species, the razorback sucker and the Colorado pikeminnow; the Rio Grande has two bird species, the southwest willow flycatcher and the yellow-billed cuckoo, and one fish, the Rio Grande silvery minnow. Dave has also been a falconer for ten years and currently flies a pair of Harris's hawks.