Erin D'Agnese

I’m a molecular toolmaker, educator, and conservation researcher. I’ve worked in those capacities with federal and state governments, academia, non-profit organizations, and Indigenous communities and governments. Climate change and biodiversity loss are collectively the biggest threats to the health of our ecosystems and communities. However, the communities most disproportionately impacted by climate change are also the ones whose conservation work is sorely under-resourced, under-funded, and often overlooked. Community-driven conservation groups do the most work with the least amount of resources. Their efforts often have a disproportionately large and direct impact on their local ecosystem’s health. But they don’t often have the tools, resources, and education to maximize their efforts, measure their full impact, or share their success broadly. Let’s give the communities that are doing the most active restoration work the reins to lead the way forward by giving them the tools to do it themselves. I’m aiming to develop a suite of modular research protocols and training plans to accommodate a wide range of communities. My team will equip communities with the appropriate tools and skills they need, along with continued support. We will leverage Western scientific tools to bolster Indigenous and community science, enabling groups to translate their effective community-driven science into the language of Western science and gain widespread support, along with in-house capacity to accelerate restoration efforts. We hope to scale this to serve communities globally. Thousands of groups may exist that could combine forces to combat climate change, support each other, and make real strides in restoring the habitats and natural resources we all rely on. We are seeking start-up funds to expand our team and capacity, develop key modules, and then equip and train the first batch of community partners.