Embedded Files
Conservation Engagement Alex
Conservation Engagement Alex
This month’s Zoo Star is Alex Nicely. Alex has been Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium’s Youth Volunteer Team Coordinator since June of 2013. It’s her job to interview, train, supervise, and generally wrangle the zoo’s High school and middle school aged volunteers.
Alex graduated from Western Washington University in 2007 with a degree in Marine Biology, and her resume reflects a passion for both marine biology and conservation education. Since graduating she’s worked as a Research Technologist for the Shannon Point Marine Center, as a Tidepool Educator for the Laguna Ocean Foundation, taught after-school science programs to 4th and 5th graders, and worked as a Marine Naturalist Interpreter for the City of Newport Beach in California.
While Alex grew up in Arlington, Washington, her first visit to Point Defiance was only a few months before she started as the Youth Volunteer Coordinator. She and her then fiancé, now husband, Matt, were living in California while he finished vet school. As part of his program he did an externship with Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium’s Animal Heath Care department. She came up from California to visit him, liked the facility, and a few months later she was hired!
In her time at Point Defiance she has loved the opportunity to create lasting connections with her youth volunteers, some of whom stay with the program from the age of 11 until they graduate from high school. Some of them even go on to become staff members at PDZA! The fact that she gets to share her passion for conservation and animals with them is definitely an added bonus. For example, over the summer of 2017 Alex and her zoo guides spent a ton of time teaching guest about plastic pollution while interpreting in the Washed Ashore traveling exhibit. But even before Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium joined the In Our Hands campaign to reduce the use of single use plastics, reducing plastic pollution, especially in the world’s oceans, was one of the conservation causes closest to Alex’s heart. While living in California she had the opportunity to attend the Plastic Ocean Pollution Summit put on by the 5 Gyres Institute and worked to ban single use plastic bags in the city of Newport beach.
When she isn’t working at the zoo, she and her husband Matt enjoy adventuring and working on their house, which they bought last year. This past September, Alex hiked nearly all 93 miles of Mount Rainiers Wonderland Trail with her sister and mom – snow forced them to leave the trail and they had to skip part of it. But not all her trips are so close to home, some of her favorite memories include seeing Machu Picchu at sunrise before all the tourists arrived and being courted by a blue footed booby in the Galapagos Islands. One of her life’s goals is to visit every continent – right now she has Antarctica, Africa, and Australia left! One of her dream trips is to visit Kenya. In the summer of 2009 she worked at Woodland Park Zoo’s Upapi Maasai beading table. Getting to meet members of the Maasai left her with a desire to learn more about Maasai culture and how they coexist with the animals that live on the savannah.
Alex is a wonderful example of someone who is passionate about Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium’s mission of practicing and promoting effective conservation on behalf of the world’s wildlife, both in her professional and personal life. That’s why we’re excited to call her this month’s Zoo Star! In lieu of a gift card, Point Defiance AAZK will be making a donation to 5 Gyres Institute in Alex’s name.
AAZK’s Zoo Stars!
Randomly chosen participants will receive a $5 gift card of their choice.
Zoo Stars can be any permanent staff, seasonal/temporary staff, volunteer, or intern from any department!
Google Sites
Report abuse