Elis Smits

Local Nature Partnership Coordinator, Gwynedd Council
Michelle Payne

Volunteer, MSc Researcher, N/A

I am a volunteer of one of the Wildlife Trust branches' local action youth forum, and in 2023 I worked as an Education and Community Engagement Officer for one of their local nature reserves, as part of a paid internship. I love wildlife and am deeply interested in helping people connect to nature for conservation and well-being. I seek a future role in the conservation and wildlife sector, and as grant writing is a vital skill for this sector, I decided to sign up to WildTeam for the Grant Writing for Wildlife Conservation course. I enjoyed the course so much, that I am continuing with the WildTeam's courses, starting with Project Planning for Wildlife Conservation.  I have MSc Research degree in Biological Sciences at Bangor University, where researched variation in the vertebral column of rhesus macaques. I also have a BSc Hons in Zoology with Animal Behaviour. I love primates, my favourite being lemurs, and I hope to see them someday in Madagascar. I also love writing and hope to publish a novel one day. My preferred writing genres are fantasy and sci-fi (with a little nature thrown in too).  I have had two nature non-fiction articles published in the North Wales Wildlife Trust's 2025 Membership Magazines and was credited as a proofreader in the Summer 2025 edition.