It’s nice to meet you.

Ava (in a nutshell)

I moved to Colorado in my senior year of high school and have loved this state from the get-go. I was extremely lucky to spend many of my formative years hiking, backpacking, and camping in many of the public lands and natural heritage sites located across the U.S. While growing up near the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge located in southeastern Oklahoma, that love for protecting our natural environment became a passion project. That love only grew when one day on a hike, I mimicked an elk calf and surprised both myself, my step-father, and the elk calf when the call sounded so similar. I snapped the photo on the right just seconds later. After flipping through a Natural Geographic magazine, only a few months after, and discovering the job title "Wildlife Biologist," I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life working with wildlife.

At the time of writing this, I’m proud to say I’ve delivered on that early teenage dream. Having graduated with my BSc in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology (Wildlife Concentration) from Colorado State University in December 2022, I am now navigating the world of being a mostly newly minted wildlife professional. This career can be difficult at times, but I’m excited to see the possibilities that open up to me as I only become more rooted in this science and career.

Interested in the previous opportunities I’ve been a part of? Check out my CV, below.

CV

FAQs

  • I started my education journey at Pikes Peak State College located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. After 2 years of knocking out gen-ed classes, I transferred to Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. I finished with my Bachelor’s of Science on December 17th, 2022 in Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology (Wildlife Concentration).

  • The one thing that remains consistent in my professional goals, is that I want to be involved in interdisciplinary, multi-taxa, ecology-level projects. I like keeping my interests broad because I find that 1) I enjoy ever-changing/adaptable work environments, 2) this is how real biological functions work—nothing is separate and everything feeds into each other, and 3) I am passionate about bridging connections between plants, wildlife, and people.

  • As you might can tell from my website, I love to write. I still have journals from the single digits years, and apparently things haven’t changed much since then. Writing feels like easiest way to forge connection, even now. And I hope by reading some of my work, we can both find ways to better understand the world we’re in.

    Other than writing, I’m very passionate about coffee (I roast my own coffee beans and I'm very, very proud of it), reading — I work as a bookseller the other half of my life that I’m not working seasonally, and soccer (I’m Brazilian, so it's practically the law).