I am really excited to be working with Coast Care in a role where I can get stuck into some practical conservation; training and working with volunteers across the amazing Northumberland coastline.
I’ve always loved the sea and countryside and visited Northumberland many times on family holidays when I was younger. I grew up in rural Oxfordshire, which is a beautiful part of the country to have spent many youthful hours messing about in the outdoors, but I always felt it missed something – the sea! I moved to Newcastle upon Tyne to study, and I returned to Oxfordshire when I finished, working in various factories, pubs and shops.
I spent two amazing internships working in the USA in a wildlife park in North Carolina, with stints volunteering at Oxford University Natural History Museum, OXFAM, my old Cub Scout troop and with the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust at London Wetland Centre. In 2012 I worked on the Great Crane and Spoon billed Sandpiper Projects at WWT Slimbridge and the following year began working full time at WWT London Wetland Centre. I returned to the North East with my fiancee (we met at Newcastle University!) in 2014 to become the Collection Manager at WWT Washington.
Outside work; if I was a bird I would like to be an oystercatcher, I’ve completed the last 6 Northumberland Coastal Runs and hope to run in many more, my favourite goalkeeper is Shaka Hislop and I love any activity that is based in or on the water!
I may have grown up but I still have that passion for the landscape and seaside, and having worked around the UK I am both lucky and proud to call the North East my home!