Partnering to conserve the monarch butterfly migration
Meet Our Staff
Maya Clark
Field Technician, Monarch Butterfly Habitat Monitoring (she/her)
As a field technician, Maya is helping monitor monarch butterfly habitat across California. By conducting vegetation surveys, recording monarch population numbers, and reaching out to the public, she hopes to increase our understanding of milkweed and floral species and support monarch populations. She is particularly excited about insect behavior, evolution, and ecology. Specifically, her interests lie in the biological foundations of insect behavior and how understanding the genetics and neurobiology associated with certain behaviors can aid in the conservation of species. Maya graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in May of 2022, where she majored in Animal Behavior and minored in Environmental Studies. Since graduating, she has worked in the Pest Management Research Unit of the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Sidney, Montana studying insect ecology, biocontrol, noxious weeds, and pollinators. After that, she was on the entomology team for the Farmscape Ecology Program in Ghent, New York, where she focused on insect diversity in agroecosystems and educating the public on insect conservation and native butterflies. Most recently, she worked with the Cape May Bird Observatory through New Jersey Audubon where she monitored eastern monarch butterflies and other butterfly and odonata migration. When she's not looking at bugs, she loves to take hikes, rock climb, go birding, do yoga, play percussion, and watch SpongeBob and Oscar movies.
