The American Bald Eagle Foundation is proud to announce our newest staff member, Education and Outreach Coordinator, Sidney Campbell. 

Campbell’s interest in wildlife began as a young girl growing up in Southern California. She spent a lot of time at the San Diego Zoo, where her uncle is an elephant keeper. The time she spent at the Zoo was a formative period for her perceptions of wildlife, animal care and positive reinforcement training. “Throughout my life, we would visit [the San Diego Zoo] and I was always amazed that these incredible, giant animals came when they heard my uncle’s voice and that he could ask them to perform behaviors,” she said.

Campbell knew she wanted to pursue a career working with wildlife, and earned a B.S. degree in biology from the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) in Juneau. While at UAS, Campbell and previous ABEF museum coordinator Samantha Wilson were the first UAS representatives to participate in an internship collaboration between UAS and ABEF. Campbell thrived as an ABEF intern, speaking with guests about Southeast Alaska natural history, working with our Youth Raptor students and honing her bird handling and sensitivity skills. 

Campbell has been in the lower 48 for the last two years, during which time she worked with parrots in daily husbandry, and volunteered with Cascades Raptor Center (CRC) where she cleaned aviaries, prepared diets, assisted with rehabilitation cases and grounds work. She also took extra time to shadow their Education Director, Kit Lacy, while Lacy was working with and training birds. As a CRC volunteer, Campbell learned the importance of language that we use as educators, the ethics of animal training and handling, and how important it is to give ambassadors choices on a daily basis.

Although she loved her time down south, Campbell says “I am super excited to be back in Alaska…I’m looking forward to getting to know the community [of Haines] more personally.” She is eager to help our organization continue to grow and thrive, and says “The Foundation is kind of a unique opportunity because it’s growing and changing so much, and the potential for outreach is almost unlimited. I’m crazy passionate about conservation education."

With her diverse background experiences, including work as a naturalist, and in exotic bird husbandry, Campbell brings with her an eclectic set of ideas for the Foundation’s education programming. She’d like to develop a robust volunteer program and get more folks in the Southeast area involved with the ABEF. She said, “Volunteers are the core of any non-profit and having volunteers is an excellent way to connect with the community and provide the community with more in-depth education.” Part of creating a more robust volunteer program is her re-design of our Youth Raptor Program to make  classes more age-appropriate and include more hands-on and outdoor learning activities. She also hopes to begin reaching a larger community via social media. “It’s easier now than ever to connect with people across large distances. Bald eagles reside in 49 out of 50 states, and as the American Bald Eagle Foundation we should be connecting with people across North America to protect and conserve the bald eagle,” she says.

Campbell encourages anyone with education ideas or questions to contact her at [email protected] .

We look forward to seeing Campbell in action and we are excited to have her on our team as we continue to grow and improve our conservation education plans. Welcome, Sidney!