Q. What is the highlight of your career?
A. Any time there is successful breeding at a facility that involves animals in a species survival plan is a highlight. I have been lucky enough to be a part of marmoset, red panda, and gray wolf breeding programs.

Q. What are challenges you encounter in your career?
A. Unfortunately, when working with live animals, you also must deal with death. One of the biggest challenges is having to go through end-of-life care with animals you have worked with for years.

Q. How did you get to this career?
A. I went to Unity College, ME and worked for 4 years to earn my BS degree in Captive Wildlife Care and Education. This college was very immersive and hands of for getting into the Zoo field. I did two internships, a 4 month internship at a wild bird rehab facility and 6 months at a zoo in Oregon. After that I spent a few months applying to different zoos close to home, and finally landed my first fulltime Zoo job.

Q. Are there scholarship or internship opportunities available with your career? If so, where can more information about those be found?
A. There are many internship opportunities available with this career. They are incredibly competitive, but there are often many offered each year. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) has a running list of jobs and internships that are available.