However, what I found was that the highlight of my summer there was assisting with the education programs. The next summer I went back to ZSM as an intern, and loved it. After that, as is common in the field, I spent a couple of years doing a variety of internships and part-time jobs (at other zoos, humane societies and a natural history museum) until I was able to be hired full-time at ZSM. I started out as an Education Specialist, then was promoted to the Coordinator of Middle & High School Programs. I took about a year off to work at the Medical College of Wisconsin during the pandemic doing medical education, which I also loved. However, my true passion is conservation education, so when the Programs Operations Manager position opened up, I was thrilled to return.
What are some typical day-to-day responsibilities you have, or decisions you make?
In my current role, I do a lot of logistics and operational support to ensure that our conservation education programs are able to be the best they can possibly be. That can look like many things, including running our intern program, managing our online registration process for camps and classes, and serving as a liaison between ZSM (the non-profit partner) and the County Zoo.
What is your favorite part of your job? What are your job's biggest challenges?
I love that my current job involves a lot of strategic thinking and problem solving. It constantly keeps me on my toes! I also just love coming to work at the Zoo every day, as it’s such a fun and unique environment. One of the biggest challenges is that my job is extremely broad… pretty much everything is “operations”!
