Cheryl Calaustro

From humble beginnings as a zookeeper, I am an independent conservation biologist with 25 years of program administration experience in the field of community outreach & awareness. I have been involved in natural resource protection, endangered species recovery and community development in the Pacific, Central America, the Caribbean and the US. Within Micronesia, I established relationships with a broad range of stakeholders to garner local community support for conservation projects by increasing knowledge to improve attitudes and change behaviors to combat threats they face in their environment. I have designed and implemented communication strategies utilizing social surveys that have helped communities and marginalized groups obtain tangible, effective, maintainable results by incorporating local knowledge and solutions with contemporary media. I have developed proposals and managed grants from entities including the US Fish & Wildlife Service, National Audubon Society, Rare and the UN. These grants supported a variety of programs that addressed daily operational needs to sustain community outreach and education programs. I have been effective in executing regional plans through partnerships and collaboration with dispersed partners and take pride in having trained and educated not only frontline invasive species responders but also future environmental stewards throughout my career. Lastly, I am passionate about youth empowerment and diversifying the conservation sector to improve local capacity for sustainable social and economic development.