Early Career Alumni Award Recipients

This award recognizes an early-career alumnus or alumna of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology who has achieved outstanding accomplishments and is poised to make significant advancements in their field.

Accepting nominations until March 31, 2023.

Expand all

2022 - Emily Roberts

Emily Roberts, B.S. 2012

woman smiling at camera while holding a snake

Emily received her B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife from the University of Minnesota in 2012 and began her career as an interpretive naturalist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, creating educational programs about natural resources.
In 2015, she started her YouTube account, Snake Discovery, with her husband, Ed, to share her love of reptiles and amphibians, and exhibit appropriate care for her favorite, often misunderstood, animals.

Emily is an ambassador for all sorts of herps and exotic and local wildlife. Her content incites curiosity about reptiles and excites people of all ages with unique aspects of each species and individual animal. Snake Discovery now has a facility in Maplewood where Emily and her staff host educational reptile experiences among live animal displays and run an adoption program that models responsible behavior for animal enthusiasts, young and old. 

2020 - Dr. Jonathan Slaght

Jonathan Slaght, M.S., '05, Ph.D., '11

892020_slaght_with_owl_0.jpg
Jonathan Slaght in the field with a Blakiston's Fish Owl

Jonathan Slaght is the 2020 Early Career Alumni Awardee. Since completing his MS ('05)  and PhD ('11) at the University of Minnesota, Jonathan Slaght has served as the Russia and Northeast Asia Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society. He manages research projects involving endangered species such as Blakiston’s fish owls and Amur tigers, and coordinates WCS avian conservation activities along the East Asia-Australasian Flyway from the Arctic to the Tropics.

Jonathan’s writings, scientific research, and photographs have been featured by the BBC World Service, the New York Times, The Guardian, Smithsonian Magazine, The New Yorker, and Audubon Magazine, among others. A memoir of his graduate work with Blakiston’s fish owls, titled Owls of the Eastern Ice, is being published in June 2020 by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. He also authors a blog for Scientific American about his fieldwork titled “East of Siberia.” You can follow him on Twitter.

2018 - Dr. Olivia LeDee

Olivia LeDee, Ph.D., '08

oledee.jpg
Dr. Olivia LeDee

Olivia LeDee (’08, Ph.D. Conservation Biology) has been selected to be the first recipient of the University of Minnesota - Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology (FWCB) Early Career Alumni Award. Her dissertation addressed the relationship between non–breeding shorebird populations, landscape conversion, and management of listed species in coastal areas.

Since completing her doctorate, Olivia has provided leadership for several key initiatives at the interface of natural resource conservation and climate change. Olivia is the Acting Director of the Midwest Climate Adaptation Science Center.