Alison Young

Director of Outreach Programs @Inaturalist

Sonoma, CA, US
EMAILS
a•••••@inaturalist.org
MOBILE NUMBERS
+19•••••••67

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WORK HISTORY

Jan 2025 — Present

Director of Outreach Programs @Inaturalist

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Developing programs, partnerships, and resources to help keep the current iNaturalist community engaged and to bring new people to the iNaturalist platform. For example- Seeding Action with iNaturalist: a 3-year partnership with the Association of Science and Technology Centers to help museums, science centers, and beyond to bring iNaturalist information and programming to their audiences - iNaturalist Ambassadors: a program to train and support passionate iNaturalist community members to share iNaturalist in their local regions through talks, events, bioblitzes, and partnerships with local organizations; and through the ambassadors, introduce new people to the iNaturalist platform and onboard them to submit high-quality observations, help with identifications and data stewardship, and excite them to keep contributing- iNaturalist ID-a-thon: a campaign with activities and challenges to move iNaturalist community members from just making observations into helping with identifications - Development of iNaturalist resources: freely downloadable and modifiable presentations, materials, and guides to help others learn and share about iNaturalist

EDUCATION

2006 — 2009

Humboldt State University

MA, Biology

1996 — 2000

Swarthmore College

BA, Biology

SKILLS

NonprofitsConservation IssuesResearchBiodiversityCitizen ScienceVolunteer ManagementScience EducationBiologyEnvironmental AwarenessCommunity OutreachScienceEnvironmental EducationPublic SpeakingEcologyGrant WritingData CollectionTeachingExperimental Design

ABOUT ALISON YOUNG

I\'m passionate about connecting people to their local nature and each other while simultaneously collecting data critical to science and management. I have developed and run a variety of community science programs that scaffold collecting biodiversity observations using the iNaturalist platform with in-person community science field experiences, and built partnerships with the decision-makers that need these data to inform management, conservation, and policy outcomes. With data scientists and management partners, I have helped to conceptualize ways to analyze, model, and visualize community-collected biodiversity data to understand how species ranges and places are changing with changing climate conditions. Furthermore, I am dedicated to building best practices in community science, especially around equity and inclusivity and how to build agency in community scientists. I have delivered a broad range of innovative projects since 2012, reaching hundreds of thousands of people and collecting millions of species occurrence records throughout California and beyond.I am also an accomplished naturalist; my background is in intertidal ecology and I can identify most west coast rocky intertidal organisms, and after 13 years of working in biodiversity-focused community science, I also have extensive familiarity with most California flora and fauna.

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