My background is mainly in species conservation, education and capacity development. I researched mother-young interactions in gorillas and chimpanzees, in captivity and the wild. After that, I worked for three years in Indonesia, where I developed and implemented youth ambassador and community engagement programmes on local and regional scales. I work as Community Manager at WildHub since 2020, and I am an Associate Member of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at the University of Kent where I obtained my PhD on capacity development for conservation in 2022.
Outdoors enthusiast, snowboard and kitesurf addict with a background in visual communication. As a fan of outdoor sports, I’ve always been fascinated by nature and the complexities of our ecosystem, it makes me want to do all I can to preserve nature and see it flourish. Hence, in 2018 I've created Motion Aptitude. With our animations and illustrations, we’ve been helping universities and organisations sharing stories and scientific studies related to Environmental Science and other allied disciplines such as Biodiversity, Ecology, Wildlife Conservation and Animal Welfare. We aim to foster a sense of curiosity and interest in the natural world and science, so people can connect more deeply with the environment and the world around them. Our Vision is to help reconnect people of all generation with nature to ensure a sustainable future. Our Mission is to inform and inspire viewers with our compelling animated stories. Are you ready to elevate your communication to the next level? Let's talk ▶️ hello@motionaptitude.com
Highly experienced in supporting policy and decision making through delivering data on marine species, coastal pollution, and water delivery on the local, state, and federal levels. Early in my career I took every opportunity I could to gain experience in marine mammal science from California to Quebec. These opportunities created strong connections eventually guiding me to researching plastic pollution while earning my masters degree. As I finished writing my thesis, I began working with NASA on projects using satellite imagery and big data to investigate drought, this experience immensely strengthened my project management, mapping, and analytical skills. Last year I ventured into conservation writing wanting to build on my science communication skills. I would be happy to feature your project or career journey as a blog post within WildHub, so feel free to reach out to set up a short chat/interview.
Alan J. Hesse
Freelance Conservationist, author-illustrator, environmental and climate education entrepreneur, Captain Polo Academy
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.
I help run a UK charity that builds the capacity of conservationists to plan, implement, monitor, and report on their work. I also have a fair bit of experience in tiger and sea turtle conservation.