Cassie Freund is a conservation biologist, tropical forest ecologist, and science communicator. Currently the Director of Science Communication at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Miami, Florida, she studies how conservation is portrayed on social media and the effects of those portrayals on viewers. Her current work aims to strengthen best practice guidelines for posting primate images and videos on social media. She holds an M.A. in Conservation Biology from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Biology from Wake Forest University, and writes for the conservation website Mongabay, among other outlets.  

Fun Fact:  Cassie has extensive experience in tropical forest conservation in Indonesia, and completed her Ph.D. research in the tropical Andean montane forests of Peru

Meghan (or Meg) is a PhD candidate at Deakin University, in Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on how Conservation Organisations can best use wildlife imagery to promote wildlife appreciation and wildlife-friendly behaviours. She also works closely with On The Edge Conservation and Zoos Victoria to research new and engaging ways that images can capture an audience’s attention and drive for conservation and has been lucky enough to win several awards and prizes for her public speaking and science presentations. Meg also briefly moonlighted as a zookeeper, both in Australia and South Africa, and her honours work focused on how images taken at zoos are received by viewers on social media.

Fun Fact:  Meg somehow won the National Science Quiz in 2021, even though she probably guessed 85% of the questions!

Katie (she/her/they/them) is an associate professor and graduate program director for the Department of Journalism and Media Communication at Colorado State University. As an affiliate with the university’s Center for Science Communication, she is a recognized expert in social marketing-based approaches to environmental and health behavior change, particularly for animal-related ‘One Health’ issues. She has led social marketing research projects funded by the U.S. National Park Service, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. View her projects at envsocialmarketing.com.

Fun Fact:  Outside of work, Katie is a budding “Disney Adult” likely planning a visit to a Disney park, listening to a design or psychology podcast, or eternally wishing for or enjoying Colorado summer and all it has to offer outdoors.

Andrea is a lecturer at Princeton University. Her research occurs in the spaces where humans and non-human primates interact. This includes applying wild field research to captive animals, investigating the impacts of anthropogenic changes to wild primates, and examining how social media can be inadvertently harmful to wildlife. Andrea earned a PhD in Biological Anthropology from Boston University in 2019. Her doctoral research explored the nutrient drivers of orangutan foraging and has informed the diets of orangutans at orangutan rescue and rehabilitation centers and zoos. She has continued to study the diet and health of wild primates both as a post-doctoral researcher with Dr. Erin Vogel, and through starting a nutritional ecology program at the Tsaobis Baboon Project in Tsaobis, Namibia. Andrea became interested in how social media and images impact wildlife conservation in 2016, and started a research program with co-PI Cassie Freund investigating this in 2020.  Her work in this field led her to becoming an active member of the IUCN’s Primate SSG Subcommittee on Human-Primate Interactions. 

Fun Fact:  Outside of research and teaching, Andrea loves horror as a genre that engages important social constructs, her Italian greyhounds, and all things dessert.

Lucy (she/her) is a second year Ph.D. student at Colorado State University who aspires to use the conservation marketing framework to mitigate negative human-wildlife interactions within recreation spaces. She discovered science communication while studying for wildlife biology exams during undergrad, where she enjoyed connecting friends to the content of her classes. Following graduation, she held positions with San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and California State Parks, where she obtained an interpretive guide certification using narrative to connect members of the public to conservation efforts. Enamored with connecting and communicating for the benefit of conservation work, Lucy pursued an M.S. in Tropical Conservation Biology and Environmental Science at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, where her graduate work focused on place-based science communication methods in Hawaiʻi.

Fun Fact:  When Lucy is not being a busy worker bee, she can be found with her nose stuck in a good fiction book, hiking trails to spot wildlife or spending quality time with friends and family.

Micaiala Hamner is a science communication researcher, with a passion for shark conservation and environmental communication. Micaiala is a current Doctor of Philosophy student, who specializes in qualitative and quantitative science communication research. Micaiala holds a M.A. degree in Strategic Communication and Leadership and a B.A. in Communication and Marine Biology from the University of West Florida. Micaiala has a passion for creating educational materials and developing innovative strategies to help combat the world’s growing environmental crisis. More specifically, Micaiala enjoys conducting research that analyzes environmental communication messages and the integration of narrative storytelling approaches to find innovative conservation solutions. Her passion for science communication arose from watching her favorite show The Crocodile Hunter Diaries. Her exposure to the show led her to pursue several opportunities to learn about conservation and cultivate her love for science communication, these experiences led her to volunteer at The Cincinnati Museum Center as an exhibit interpreter for the Museum of Natural History and Science, she later attended Jimmy Buffets Sea Camp, and later became a certified scuba diver. She is now an active member of Black in Marine Science and Black Women in Ecology Evolution and Marine Science. Each of these experiences have furthered her passion for science communication and the growing efforts to foster more collaborative science spaces.

Fun Fact:  Micaiala loves to travel and while traveling, she enjoys exploring local zoos and aquariums in the new places she visits.