Thousands of organizations around the globe work to protect our planet’s wildlife through conservation, education, and research. In the United States, the majority of our nation’s federally-designated wilderness is in Alaska. These lands are home to creatures of all kinds: from moose and brown bears to porcupines and beluga whales. For Alaskan residents and visitors alike, few experiences compare to learning about our wild neighbors during a visit to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC) in Portage, Alaska.

On a recent trip, Abigail got to experience all that the AWCC has to offer firsthand. Inspired by the organization’s mission, we sat down with Sarah Howard and Lily Grbavach, two of the Center’s leading ladies, to learn more about their experiences in wildlife conservation.

For people who don’t know about the Alaskan Wildlife Conservation Center or haven’t gotten to visit, what exactly do you do?

Sarah: The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center is a sanctuary dedicated to preserving native Alaskan wildlife through conservation, education, research, and quality animal care. Oftentimes, the animals that come into our center are injured or orphaned, and we give them a permanent home.

Just to clarify, how does the conservation center’s mission differ from the initiatives of a typical zoo?

Sarah: That’s a good question. Ultimately, we all work to help injured and orphaned wildlife. Some zoos specialize more in species survival plans, where the animals act as part of a breeding project thinking about the conservation of the species itself. And a lot of facilities out there do what we do, especially for native species that become injured or orphaned and need permanent placement.

So ultimately, we’re all working with animals in human care, and we want to give them the best lives that we can.

Lily: It’s pretty common for people to look at organizations like us through a “zoo versus sanctuary” lens, but I think it’s more the mission of an organization than the title that sets places apart.

Lily: We work on conservation in a number of ways. As our director of education, I promote conservation through learning. The animals living here act as ambassadors of their species for the countless students that come visit us every year and the tourists who visit us from all over the planet. Visitors get to see animals, relate to animals, and maybe even find out for the first time that some of these species exist, which happens surprisingly often.

We talk a lot in my department about the staircase to stewardship. When we engage a guest or student, we assess their baseline knowledge and decide what we can do to best help them get to that next step. The very first step to helping people find a reason to care is ensuring they have a positive experience associated with these animals in wild spaces. And that next step could be anything from sharing ways a visitor can get involved with conservation efforts to learning the basics of what an animal needs to survive.

We also work on some really cool conservation projects in partnership with other organizations. For instance, there’s our wood bison reintroduction program, which operates in cooperation with the state and other partners. We also work closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and local fisheries to conduct beluga whale monitoring. And we work with the US Fish and Wildlife service in many capacities. Recently, we’ve started helping with a Rufous hummingbird banding initiative. They’re a new species here— we think they’ve been in this region for the past 50 years— and the biologists we work with collect baseline data that can help inform us on population management decisions and conservation efforts.

Wildlife conservation is a group endeavor! It doesn’t stop with just one person or facility.

How do academic, state, and federal research interests interplay in conservation?

Lily: It’s a complicated web to navigate. But part of what makes these relationships confusing is that they vary by location. For example, our terrestrial land mammals considered fur-bearing or game species are managed at the state level, which is different from anywhere else in the US. But our marine mammals and birds are managed federally.

Within academia, a university has its own interests. Lots of students study something relevant to conservation goals at both the state and the federal level. Then, you’ll have research teams representing a combination of both. The overlap depends on where your area of interest lies. All of these things revolve around multiple agencies, and there’s not always communication between groups. It takes effort to build partnerships and maintain open communication.

How have each of you ended up in your current roles? What responsibilities do you have?

Sarah: We both started at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center as interns. I started in 2010, then after I graduated from college in 2012, I never left. I worked my way up the chain from being a keeper, to being a supervisor, to being the curator.

In my current role as executive director, I’m in charge of putting out major fires and making sure that my management team (including Lily) get what they need to be successful. The way I look at it, I play a support role.

Lily: And I am the director of education. [Sarah] Howie and I have known each other for a really long time. I was an intern in 2009, but I went to the university in Fairbanks, so I always came down to visit during school breaks. I knew I wanted a career here, so I stayed in touch and always squeezed my way into volunteering for things.

I took a different path than Howie, though. After I interned here, I finished my schooling in Fairbanks with a degree in wildlife biology and conservation. Then, I went on a few adventures elsewhere to gain as many skills as I could because I knew that the position I wanted would require me to wear many hats, especially in a small nonprofit. I worked as a keeper, I worked as a camp director, and I even worked in a lab for the Forest Service for a while. Having diverse perspectives from other jobs has worked out for me.
Now, I oversee all of our educational programming, interpretive programming, and research collaborations. I have teammates outside right now leading tours, engaging people, and sharing about animals. I support all of them in addition to doing a lot of direct service.

For example, earlier today, I monitored belugas as part of the NOAA Cook Inlet beluga whale protection program. It was an extra special monitoring session. We saw eight whales from the point today, including a calf. One of our NOAA partners was here, and we trained new community scientists to help us monitor the whales. And with the good weather, a massive number of people were there, squealing with excitement as the whales surfaced. It was the perfect opportunity to engage them about the Cook Inlet beluga whales, why we’re monitoring them, and the issues they face in their environment.

So, it sounds like you’re both Alaskan born and raised?

Sarah: I was born and raised up here. But when I was about 10 years old, my dad got a job in Wisconsin, so my whole family moved. At first, we hated it. It was a really tough sell to take a bunch of mountain kids and put them in a cornfield, but we did it. I eventually learned to love the Dairyland but I always knew I wanted to work with animals, and coming “home” to Alaska was always my goal. So, while going through school, I set myself up to do just that.

I double majored in biology and wildlife management, minoring in captive wildlife management. That way, if I wanted to go on and become a vet, I had all the prerequisites for that taken care of, but I could also become a research biologist, or work in husbandry. Then I came back to Alaska, and here I am!

I recently heard someone use the term “the salmon effect,” and I am obsessed with that description for people that were born and raised here in Alaska, left, and came back. I am definitely beluga food.

Lily: I love that.

My story is a bit different here as well. I attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks and I moved to Alaska for school. But there’s another effect where they say that Alaska is like a black hole. Once you’ve experienced it, it keeps drawing you back in. That’s what happened to me. I moved here, and my parents were like, “she’ll be back in four years.”

Not the case. I’m a transplant and I explored lots of different things. But I always knew I wanted to go into education. I realized that there are three things you can do with my degree: management, law enforcement, or research. You could easily get trapped in one of those silos, but I wanted to be in a place where I could combine the best aspects of all three of those fields and help make it all make sense for people who don’t have the same educational experience that I do.

It seems like you both always had an idea of, if not exactly what you wanted to do, the general direction you wanted your career to take. Was there a specific event in your lives that helped you pinpoint that true north?

Sarah: I remember my moment.

Lily: I do too.

Sarah: You go first.

Lily: Okay. My grandfather introduced me to this field, and he didn’t even know it.

When I was young, a baby bluebird fell out of a nest near our house. While it was just a fledgling going through a natural process, there were lots of ferocious cats in the neighborhood. So, we set up a little quarantine pen around the bird to let it do its thing in peace.

It cried for its mom for a long time. And it’s mom was like, “you got this, kid.”

Eventually, the baby blue bird took off and became a real adult bird. And that was the moment where I knew this is what I’m going to do. I’m going to work with animals and teach people about things like why birds fall out of their nests.

Sarah: For me, it was in first grade. When it was time to head to the school bus stop, there was a mama and a baby moose in the yard. The bus turned around, and we didn’t get to go to school that day because the mom never left. She really liked our house, apparently.

But the reason I’m in this field isn’t because I didn’t have to go to school. I grew up as an Alaska kid who got to go outside and be with wildlife that kids in the lower 48 can only read about without traveling. The moose in our yard was just the moment it clicked. This was where I wanted to be: working with animals like that one. I sat and watched that moose all day.

But friends and family also played a role in my interests. My older brother was into dog mushing, so I got to work with the dogs a lot when I was young. One of the other mushers was also a big inspiration, because not only had she competed in, like, 20 Iditarods, but she also had horses and cows on her dog lot. I developed an affinity for large animals, wild or domestic, very early, and even though I complained about moving to a cornfield in Wisconsin, I always loved being around the cows.

Anyway, doing this job… it’s still like I’m living in a dream.

That’s how you know you’re doing the right thing! Do you have any advice that you would give to other young women with a similar affinity or who also might be interested in a career in wildlife conservation?

Lily: I’ve talked to lots of people like Howie and I who knew early on exactly what we wanted to do. But that’s not how it happens for everyone, and that is totally okay.

If you don’t know what you want to do and you’re in school, it’s okay to take time to explore different opportunities. I certainly did, but I also kept track of the skills that I was gaining. So, my advice for people of all ages is to start exploring, whether by visiting places like the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, by participating in internships, or even just the little things that inspired us, like spending time observing nature.

Sarah: Ditto what Lily said. But I also want to emphasize the value of volunteering. It may not sound very fun, and you may wonder how much time you can really give, but even if it’s only an afternoon a week, or just one day a month, eventually you’ll earn skills and trust that you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Even if you just help muck stalls once a week, eventually you’re going to be there on a Saturday afternoon doing that, and someone will be like, “Can you get in the truck and back the trailer up?”

Before you know it, you’re doing it, because they trust you and need your help. So, volunteering opens up new opportunities. Like Lily said, the paths we took don’t happen for everyone. A lot of my career moves have happened because I’ve been in the right place at the right time. But you have to put yourself out there and not be scared to try new things.

Internships are designed to help you do just that. In college, you have four summers to dabble in all sorts of internships and get all sorts of experience. Experience every discipline that you can. In wildlife conservation, some facilities are so big that you could work in a native species division, then education the next summer, and training and behavior the next summer.

Depending on the size of the organization, or agency, that you’re working in, you’ll find different opportunities and learning outcomes. If you’re an intern here, for example, you’re going to experience what might be multiple different departments at another facility.

Lily: We also have interns from all kinds of degree programs. They don’t have to be studying biology. It takes people from all backgrounds to make what we do happen. Just because I’m the one out there monitoring belugas doesn’t mean I could do my job without the help of our marketing team, our operations team, or the people in the gift store who raise the money that helps pay for our facility.

You two are amazing examples of women in conservation biology, so we’re curious: have you experienced any gender biases in your field? How have things improved over time, and did you have any particularly influential female mentors?

Sarah: Oh, things have definitely gotten better. The situation now is different from when I was younger and entering the field.

Lily: Yeah, there have definitely been biases. I haven’t had any experiences that were so overwhelmingly negative that they made me not want to do this anymore. But when I was exploring career options, part of what drew me to this field was that I was so lucky to have strong female role models who made me feel like I could be successful and that I’m welcome in this space. That made a big difference for me; I’m very lucky in that regard.

I still face the public every day for educational programs and I think that’s where I see the most bias. Mostly people who ask questions in inappropriate ways.

Sarah: Unlike Lily, my background is heavily on the animal care side of things. I feel pretty fortunate that the animal care field is actually heavily dominated by women.
I had a number of female mentors in college, high school, and even just in life in general. On my friend’s farm, her mom would come out with us and we’d pull a calf out of a cow. Those kinds of experiences were all women.

When I first started here, we were pretty male-dominated. But we have a lot of women on staff right now! Something around 50-50, and there are a lot of women out there in the animal care world, so that’s really cool!

Interested in learning more about the AWCC?

Check out their website or connect via Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tiktok. We can attest that their photos and videos are amazing!

You can also read more about the AWCC’s partnership with the Alaska Beluga Monitoring Program and Belugas Count!, an annual community science and monitoring event.