What excites you about your career here at CLR?

I love what we do here at CLR. Being part of giving zoo animals a place to roam, explore, and challenging them with mind-based activities, while at the same time teaching the next generation about conservation is an exciting experience.

What do you like about exhibit design?

I love how we are teaching people that conservation is important and bringing to the forefront the need for everyone to care about their environment whether it’s locally or somewhere you might never see in your lifetime.

What do you enjoy doing on the weekend?

I love to garden and organize (I am an organization nerd). I also love to make flower arrangements.

Tell us something fun or funny about yourself that most people don’t know.

I am not afraid of alligators. I grew up in Florida and my family lived near a canal. Since alligators like to sun themselves, we knew that we needed to find out where the alligators were sunning in the yard and use the opposite door to go outside.

What excites you about your career here at CLR?

Being part of a multi-generational legacy of designing places and experiences with people and animals and purpose. I wonder what future generations will create in 25, 50, 100 years from now?

What do you like about exhibit design?

Facilitating a design process with a client that ultimately brings vision, ideas and needs together creating something special and innovative. An exhibit opening is pretty cool too!

What do you enjoy doing on the weekend?

Getting outside, whether in the garden or on a trail or at the lake…Mother Nature recharges you if you give her a chance.

Tell us something fun or funny about yourself that most people don’t know.

When I was a teenager I went to the White house and castrated a calf and played golf with Jimmy Carter.

What excites you about your career here at CLR?

Working closely with our clients to push the boundaries of modern zoological standards is an exciting collaborative process! The free flow of ideas and knowledge encourages us to integrate creative design solutions with the latest research in animal husbandry. Zoos are constantly adapting to progress management practices and provide animals with the best welfare, and CLR gets to play a big role in that progress.

What do you like about exhibit design?

My favorite part of exhibit design is researching the animals that I’m designing for. Going down the rabbit hole, I learn all about an animal’s habitat, behavior and ecology. Integrating all that information into a design makes for an active and stimulating environment for the animals, and a memorable experience for visitors!.

What do you enjoy doing on the weekend?

On weekends I like to cook new recipes and play my guitar. I’ve perfected my vodka sauce recipe, but my funk rhythm could use some work.

Tell us something fun or funny about yourself that most people don’t know.

Once when I was a kid I found 20 dollars in the wash, so I decided to buy myself a digeridoo. I taught myself how to play through online tutorials and lots of trial and error. I really enjoyed learning the instrument, but my family didn’t love the process. You don’t realize how loud a didgeridoo is when you’re the one playing it.

What excites you about your career here at CLR?

I enjoy that through design, I’m able to contribute to the conservation of wildlife.

What do you like about exhibit design?

Watching the excitement of guests as they interact with an animal in a completed project.

What do you enjoy doing on the weekend?

I enjoy biking and woodworking. I’m currently training for annual Bike MS: City to Shore charity bike ride and working on renovating my house.

Tell us something fun or funny about yourself that most people don’t know.

I’m a self-taught drummer and grew up playing in bands with friends. We still jam once a week.

What excites you about your career here at CLR?

I am so passionate about animal conservation and the important work that zoos do, so being part of a firm that supports zoological institutions by designing world-class exhibits is nothing short of my dream job. The people here are pretty great, too!

What do you like about exhibit design?

I truly believe that the best way to get people to care about animals is to provide opportunities for impactful connections that they would be otherwise unable to have. Figuring out ways to best facilitate that for a diverse range of animal species is an exciting and meaningful challenge.

What do you enjoy doing on the weekend?

I’m an animal care volunteer at a marine mammal rescue center on the weekend, where I help with the rehabilitation of sick and injured seals and sea lions. It’s hard work but so rewarding! When I’m not scrubbing seal poop, I enjoy spending time with my husband and our fluffy white dog.

Tell us something fun or funny about yourself that most people don’t know.

For a short time during college, I worked in the Entertainment department at Disney World and operated giant puppets in the parade at Animal Kingdom! I was also really good friends with Pluto…

What excites you about your career here at CLR?

I enjoy working on projects that merge all the design disciplines. Learning about the seemingly endless variety of animal species is a real source of inspiration.

What do you like about exhibit design?

Trying to get inside the brain of the animal whose habitat we’re trying to recreate is always an interesting challenge.

What do you enjoy doing on the weekend?

I enjoy spending time with family and friends, working on our house and dabbling in on-going sculpture projects. If it wasn’t for family holding me back, I’d either be doing ironman competitions regularly or on the professional table tennis circuit.

Tell us something fun or funny about yourself that most people don’t know.

I can’t roll my Rs, so speaking good Spanish is not in my future.