Miami University graduate Niki Desautels ‘22 is interviewed and filmed leading a community training on bat monitoring in the Seattle area by Crosscut, a Northwest independent, nonprofit news site. The TV spot, called “Human Elements: Going to bat for a misunderstood mammal,” also features current Dragonfly facilitators Karen Sherwood and Katie Remine and Miami graduate Bryan Vasquez ’13. Both Vasquez and Remine helped to lead the program that evening, along with Desautels.

Desautels earned a Master of Arts (M.A.) in the biological sciences from Miami through Project Dragonfly‘s Advanced Inquiry Program (AIP) while focusing on school and on volunteer conservation work. As an AIP student, Desautels connected many of her master’s assignments into her work as a project coordinator and led efforts in southwest Seattle to increase awareness and interest in bat conservation and research efforts. In addition to being a MA graduate, Desautels volunteers with advocacy organization Bats Northwest and Jet City Rollergirls, a skater-run women's athletic league.

Sherwood is the Youth and Adult Learning Manager at Woodland Park Zoo, where she brings her deep and varied experiences as a curriculum designer, program manager, classroom teacher and department chair, and builder of community-based educational partnerships to her work with the AIP.  Sherwood’s personal and professional development and career over the past 20 years have focused on the themes of social justice, equity, environmental education and sustainability. 

Remine works as the Living Northwest Conservation Manager in the Wildlife Conservation division at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. She coordinates Woodland Park Zoo’s involvement in Pacific northwest wildlife conservation, including projects to recover local endangered species and programs to help communities coexist with local wildlife from carnivores to pollinators. Remine also serves on the instructional team of Miami’s Earth Expeditions.

Vasquez, who is Woodland Park Zoo's Guest Engagement Manager, earned a M.A. in the biological sciences through Project Dragonfly‘s Global Field Program (GFP). Vasquez’s international fieldwork with Project Dragonfly included studying island biogeography and whale sharks in Baja, Mexico; investigating orangutans and sustainable palm oil solutions in Borneo; and examining avian and tropical ecology in the Amazon. As a GFP student, Vasquez connected many of his master’s assignments into his conservation engagement work. He facilitated a survey of Woodland Park Zoo staff about recycling behaviors and conservation values and engaged frontline staff in conservation training methods.

Desautels (left), Sherwood, Remine, Vasquez - all of Seattle, Washington - are helping protect bat populations in the Pacific Northwest.