Presenter Details

Karyn "Kestrel" O'Hearn (she/her) Karyn “Kestrel” O’Hearn began following birds around during UC Santa Cruz’s Natural History Field Quarter program while earning an Environmental Studies degree. Those experiences inspired over two decades teaching science at several northern California outdoor schools, teaching middle school science, and working in Yosemite National Park as a seasonal interpretive ranger-naturalist. When not working, her love for birds and natural history have inspired her to design and lead programs for Sierra Foothill Conservancy and co-instructing two California Naturalist courses. In 2021 she completed a master’s in Avian Sciences at UC Davis where she investigated differences in winter bird species communities in areas with different fire histories within a Giant Sequoia forest.