I'm a biodiversity consultant working mainly in the corporate space. I work with large companies to help them figure out their nature-related impacts, dependancies, risks and opportunities, then use this information to create biodiversity strategies. 

I have worked in field biology since 2013 with a focus on avian research, specifically wetland and coastal habitats. Most recently, I worked with Audubon Great Lakes to bring urban migratory bird monitoring to Grange Insurance Audubon Center. For several years, I worked with shorebirds and wading birds in Florida as the Avian Biologist with Rookery Bay Reserve. I have also presented multiple lectures for festivals or training courses such as the Florida Master Naturalist course and Rookery Bay's Festival of Birds. I currently reside in Central Ohio while staying active in national or international conservation programs such as Zoo Miami's Florida Flamingo Working Group to research American flamingo ecology or ResearchWild Inc's international internship research program.

My conservation career started in 1992 when I helped set up and joined a University expedition to the Bolivian Amazon. What started out as a 3-month experience ended up being a life-changing inflection point that set my professional and personal course to the present day. My conservation experience was built bottom-up and hands-on, and includes field data collection and logistics, grassroots organization leadership and project management, community engagement and capacity building, M&E, training and behavior change, and lately climate education through authorship of graphic novels and other resources. My conservation career includes positions as a senior staff member and a principal investigator at the Bolivian BirdLife Partner Armonía, field investigator in the Gran Chaco with WCS Bolivia, field logistics officer for Conservation International's RAP expeditions, and Programme Manager and Senior Manager of M&E at Rare. I currently work as Senior Behaviour Change Specialist with TRAFFIC International, applying behavioural science approaches to support TRAFFIC's work across wildlife supply chains globally. 

I studied Marine Biology in San Diego, California and Wildlife Biology & Conservation in Edinburgh, Scotland. I volunteered, interned, and worked in various capacities at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Hopkins Marine Station, and on a small whale-watching outfit prior to my MSc, and I now work as a Program Delivery Facilitator at the SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity in Sacramento, California. My passions lie in informal science education, outreach, and public engagement in the sciences. 

I want to find new ways to have a positive impact on the environment and communities around the world. How I do this is pretty open; I have wide-ranging interests (including the arts and spending time outside) and am willing to adapt to changing circumstances.  Although I've stepped back from being a community advocate for the WildHub community, I'm still happy to answer questions about the platform and will do what I can to help connect people.

Marine biologist, governance and conservation specialist / conservation planning / Social and environmental entrepreneur

Hi Everyone, My name is Arielle and I'm so excited for this course! I'm a wildlife conservationist but currently build online education programs for students and teachers for an international private school. My conservation work began in college while interning for the Wildlife Medical Center at my university's school of veterinary medicine. I originally went to university to become a large animal veterinarian, to fulfill my childhood dream of working with horses. However, after working with wild animals for three years, I decided to dedicate my life to species conservation and education. Upon graduation, I headed south to work for one of America's largest wildlife rescues and sanctuaries. I started as an Apprentice and worked my way up from there to an Animal Caretaker, and then to the Apprentice Program Supervisor and Training Specialist. I loved my job and my alarm clock was the roaring of a lion and lioness at dawn. I found the education aspect of the job to be the most rewarding. It was exciting to see my apprentices get inspired by what they learned and to see wildlife conservation efforts migrate into different parts of the world once my apprentices graduated from their programs. I have undergone many transitions in my career since then to accommodate all things life. Working as a teacher in schools and online has filled my education "cup", so to speak. But now, I have the opportunity to return to my career in wildlife conservation. I am whole-heartedly ready to start making a global impact one project at a time. I hope to not only gain the tools, resources, and certifications I need to effectively lead teams in wildlife conservation, but also to become a part of this amazing community. I look forward to meeting and working with all of you. This is going to be great! Arielle

I have had an interesting variety of career changes in my life, I worked as a train conductor with Scotrail for 8 years, assisted Applied Ecology LTD for a few months as an independent contractor, assisting with dawn and dusk bat surveys and worked as a wildlife rehabilitator at Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue trust. (HWRT) for 2 busy spring and summer seasons.    I decided to leave HWRT and look to expand the variety of animals I could care for, so I applied to Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi (CIWY) in Bolivia as a volunteer coordinator. My payment would be a roof over my head and breakfast and lunch provided. Due to a corrupt election, civil unrest and road blockades started to occur across Bolivia. A lot of the volunteers had left the wildlife refuge so my arrival was a happy sight for the CIWY team. I worked at the site for two months over Christmas and new year. Sadly, I received the news that a member of my close family had passed away suddenly. I made the hard decision to leave to return to Scotland, and to this day, I believe it was the right decision.    I used my time wisely during the Covid 19 lockdown after I arrived back home in the UK. I have attended free online courses to expand my natural history and zoology knowledge and applied for highly competitive jobs (due to the increased unemployment rate currently) between my study time. I also returned to volunteering with a local adult volunteer group at Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park (CMRP).    I applied for a Seasonal Countryside Ranger post at CMRP and through recognition of my knowledge and work within the park I was accepted for this position. I was offered two seasonal contract extensions and a transfer to Gleniffer Braes country Park through CMRP’s association with Renfrewshire Council.  My next career led me to working at Milngavie Reservoirs as a Seasonal Countryside Ranger, funded by Scottish Water in partnership with Mugdock Country Park. I was given the exciting opportunity to establish the reservoir site’s first ever ranger presence and over 2 years later, I still work at this location in a warden capacity. 

I graduated from Durham University in 2018 as a mature student in Biosciences. I have travelled extensively and I am passionate about wildlife. I am a qualified Divemaster and Marine Mammal surveyor/team leader. It was these interests that led to me completing my degree. I have 8yrs experience as a police officer and in my current role with the MMO I am Wildlife and Environment Compliance officer. I would love to be involved in a conservation project and that is the main reason I have signed up for this course :-)

I work for WildTeam UK, helping to deliver training workshops, write conservation best practice manuals and share them as widely as possible. Previously a Writing Fellow working with various conservation organisations across India. Background in research, particularly behavioural ecology. Bird nerd.