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Maddy Kangas
At the Xerces Society, Maddy serves as the Monarch Butterfly Conservation Planner and NRCS Partner Biologist for the Central Coast of California, providing technical assistance on monarch conservation and habitat creation for producers, landowners, and land managers. Her previous work has included integrated pest and pollinator management, habitat restoration, and community outreach and education. Maddy completed her master’s degree in natural resources and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where she researched both native bee community composition and pest insect presence within agriculturally-based pollinator habitat recreations. |
Deedee Soto
As a Pollinator Conservation Planner and NRCS Partner Biologist, Deedee works in the Central Valley of California providing support to agricultural producers, ranchers, and landowners on the planning and implementation of projects to benefit pollinators. Deedee also has diverse experience in botany and rangeland management; prior to joining Xerces, she worked for several years as a botany and range technician with the Forest Service in Colorado and Washington. She holds a bachelor’s degree in botany and environmental biology, with a minor in rangeland management, from Humboldt State University. When Deedee isn't at work, you can catch her botanizing outdoors! |
Laura Powell
Laura is a former Secondary Science and History Social Studies teacher serving English Language Learners. Leveraging her Masters in Education: Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning, she historically works on environmental education curricula programs including Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) California state adopted curricula. Laura has planned, coordinated, and presented over a hundred curricula programs and NGSS educator workshops for state environmental education curricula projects. Laura has an immense amount of experience coaching and teaching educators in environmental education, science standards and instruction, and second language acquisition strategies and is focused on designing solutions for real world problem solving. |