Week 3 – Who We Are – Everyone Else

I view this project as the “perfect storm” of my educational background and interests in conservation, wildlife art and filmmaking. I have been involved in wildlife conservation since I read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring as a fourth grader and have raised money for Greenpeace, Rhino Rescue, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, and the World Wildlife Fund. I am also an avid wildlife art collector and on my limited budget I have managed to collect pieces by John James Audubon, Herbert Dicksee, Randy Puckett, Andrea Rich, and Simon Turvey, as well as several work by my sister. I started my higher education by obtaining a degree in film production from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and even managed to make a short documentary about the Northern elephant seal of Año Nuevo Island while I was there. After graduation, my lack of contacts in the film industry and a desire to do more than menial labor had me entering the business world and a new career in financial management. After several years working in London, I returned to the States to obtain my Masters of International Business from Thunderbird School of Global Management. Since obtaining my masters degree I have been working in financial and operational management for several small businesses. With this project I am able to combine my passion for the environment with a technical understanding of documentary filmmaking and solid understanding of financial projections and budgeting.