"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King, Jr.
I graduated from Augustana college in 1994. I was twenty-three and had spent most of my youth wandering the marshes, creeks and woodlots near my home, a small rural community in Iowa. I had a passion for wildlife and wild places and built a promising resume as an undergraduate with publications and research that took me from the Rocky Mountains of Canada to the crystal blue waters of Michigan. But the world beckoned and a short diversion from my career as a conservation biologist turned into fifteen rewarding years as a science teacher and administrator, working in international schools in Syria, Pakistan, Bolivia, Tanzania and Taiwan. However, it was during a trip to the rainforests of Borneo and an unusual experience with an orangutan, that memories from my childhood resurfaced, my passion for conservation stirred, the idea to start an NGO was hatched, and a career shift was triggered. Thus, in the middle of a very fulfilling career and at the age of forty, I find myself working on a PhD, coming full circle and committing the second half of my career to protecting the biological and cultural diversity on our planet.
