Located in Seattle, WA, Woodland Park Zoo engages millions of people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, through our on-grounds experiences, community outreach, and online engagements. As a wildlife conservation organization, the zoo is also helping to save animals and their habitats, participating in more than 35 field projects in the Pacific Northwest and around the world.
Through public engagement and conservation initiatives Woodland Park Zoo’s mission is to save wildlife and inspire everyone to make conservation a priority in their lives.
You can visit the Woodland Park Zoo’s Website here: Woodland Park Zoo
Theo Bamberger, Evaluation Specialist
Theo Bamberger (they/them) chased a love of big trees and cloudy weather from Southern California to Seattle where they earned their M.Ed. in Science Education at the University of Washington. They love studying how people think, learn, and come to care about the environment and have explored the topic through various social science research projects, primarily with the Social Ecology Lab at Stanford University where they earned their B.S. in Earth Systems. As an Evaluation Specialist at Woodland Park Zoo, Theo explores how empathy is being implemented both at the zoo and across the Network, and they are always excited to talk about data. When they’re not geeking out over a good graph, Theo is often playing sousaphone in one of their two brass bands, creating nature-themed art, or hanging out with their goofball cat, Gizmo.
Mary Jackson, Manager of Audience Research & Evaluation
Mary (she/her) has been working in informal conservation learning spaces for over 20 years. Her earlier experiences working in field ecology, ornithology, and environmental education catalyzed her curiosity about the development of people’s relationships with nature and ultimately led her to the field of evaluation and social science research. Since then, Mary has led numerous evaluation projects focused on topics such as behavior change, science identity, and the role of empathy and other emotions in connecting to wildlife. When she’s not thinking about data, she enjoys camping in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and exploring the culinary world by binging on videos from YouTube chefs.