Joined: Jun 15, 2012 Last Active: Jan 18, 2021
I've been working for iNaturalist since February 2018 as the Stakeholder Engagement Strategist. We're a small team so I wear many hats. I work closely with the international iNaturalist Network and other stakeholder relationships (especially collaborating organizations). I also support the iNat Store, fundraising, communications, and outreach, as needed.
Before joining iNaturalist, I was an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation working on open data policy. Prior to that, I worked at National Geographic on BioBlitz collaborations, particularly with the National Park Service and iNaturalist. I live in Washington, D.C..
I help coordinate the DC area participation in the City Nature Challenge (see how we did in 2019!). If you want to be involved in DC for 2021, please join the Google Group that we use for coordination.
My advice to new users:
In general, I take mediocre photos, like commenting to welcome & encourage new users (try it out with this filter for accounts created in the last day), and am not very good at birds. I previously managed National Geographic's Great Nature Project. Before joining National Geographic, I got a PhD in Ecology (I studied seed dispersal in Tanzania and choreographed a dance about it). I'm a proud graduate of Earlham College which has a long history of training field biologists. I was interviewed about Earlham and iNaturalist for a short video. I love meeting other iNaturalist enthusiasts and learning how to find and identify new things.
Next known travel destinations:
-None, because we're all staying home
My recent macro photos are all taken on my iPhone XS with a Ztylus Revolver lens (available for other phones too). It lets me quickly switch between macro, super macro, and non-macro. It comes with fisheye and wide angle lenses too, but I almost never use those and I think it's worth it for the macro alone. It's the quickest, least fiddly cell phone macro I've found.