CONSERVATION LEADERS
When she was younger, Makenzie dreamed of being a marine biologist, which sounded exotic to someone from landlocked Arizona. But as she learned more about local fauna during her BS program at Northern Arizona University, she began to develop a love for the impressive biodiversity of the Southwest. During an internship in Michigan, she was wooed by salamanders, and decided to study slimy salamander phylogenetics at Louisiana Tech University for her MS. She has also done field work in Brazil and Oregon, but it didn’t take long for her to come back to the Southwest, where the cool lizards and snakes were calling her name. Now, as the Gila Project Coordinator, Makenzie is excited to apply her broader knowledge of conservation to the ecosystems and animals that remind her of home. She is also happy to be back in the land of good Mexican food.