Wildlife Career Panel

Bradyn O’Connor is a wildlife Biologist at FISHBIO with extensive experience in monitoring and surveying both terrestrial and aquatic species. He holds a master's degree in Ecology from UC Davis where he focused on the interaction between climate change and plant chemistry with an emphasis on its impacts on large mammals in the Arctic. For his graduate program Bradyn conducted his fieldwork in Kangerlussuaq Greenland and prioritized native Greenlander engagement in wildlife studies. Bradyn has taught wildlife research techniques to students across California, while also emphasizing a focus on climate change monitoring and research. Prior to his graduate studies Bradyn worked at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on the Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Conservation team. Bradyn holds a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology from UC Davis. 

Bennie graduated from Virginia Tech in 2011 with a BS in Wildlife Science and from Clemson University in 2015 with an MS in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology. Bennie’s MS project examined the role that managed forests played in shaping amphibian and reptile communities in ephemeral aquatic systems. Bennie now works as a Wildlife Biologist for Collins Pine Company, a small private timber company, and most of her work occurs in Northern California in the Lake Almanor Basin. Her primary job duties include surveying for rare, threatened, and endangered plants and wildlife across 139,000 acres of managed timberlands, as well as habitat management and helping implement restoration projects. Bennie continues to examine amphibians in managed forests and maintains a long-term Cascades frog capture-mark-recapture study south of Lassen National Park. In her free-time, Bennie enjoys any outside activity with her dog, Juneau, including hiking, mountain biking, and paddleboarding.

Ryan Lopez, M.S. works at Natural Resources Group as the Vice President of Conservation Science, located in Fresno, CA. Ryan's involvement with local wildlife issues began in High School in the small town of Tulare, CA, continued as a Fresno State Presidents Scholar while receiving his bachelors and masters in Biology/Ecology, and continues today through his profession with Natural Resources Group, an environmental firm specializing in conservation and mitigation projects. During college, he worked in the Fresno State Forest Ecology lab on projects in the Sequoia National Park, the Sierra National Forest, and the foothills of Kern County. He worked with the NRCS mapping invasive vegetation on the Kaweah River, with the San Joaquin River Parkway as a canoe guide, completed over 600 hours of college level instruction for Fresno State and Fresno City College in science courses. Ryan received a prestigious fellowship from the Environmental Protection Agency for his work in the Sequoia National Park. After college, Ryan began work as a conservation biologist specializing in special status species surveys, mitigation development, entitlement, land acquisition, conservation budgeting and planning, and land management on multiple projects throughout California, Oregon, and Georgia. Ryan has been integrally involved with the permanent protection of ~50,000 acres of habitat for threatened and endangered species and habitat types. Ryan has experience with special status plants and animals including California tiger salamander, Western burrowing owl, desert tortoise, vernal pool species, giant kangaroo rat, San Joaquin kit fox, salt marsh harvest mouse, and delta smelt, among others.