Throughout the month of March, we have commemorated Women's History Month by recognizing the extraordinary women of Conservation X Labs who work to disrupt the field of conservation every day. As we wrap up this special month, we are highlighting the inspiring work of Tanya Stere, Lead Product Manager on the Wild Me team.

Wild Me builds open software and AI for the conservation research community – specifically providing multi-feature techniques, speed, and accuracy in animal monitoring, replacing hours of human labor with minutes of computation to combat the ongoing sixth mass extinction. Recently joining the CXL portfolio in early 2024, it remains at the forefront of revolutionizing conservation efforts.

Learn more about Tanya’s experiences, reflections, and motivations with us:

What inspired you to pursue a career in conservation?

I didn't start out pursuing a career in conservation; I wanted to work in technology, and I actually started in defense contracting and then moved into data management software. I liked the day-to-day of supporting software development, but the end product was largely feeding into the finance district. I watched millions get spent on making billions, and it was far from watching my passions getting actualized.When I started thinking about moving on to a new position, it was very important to me to find work with a mission I cared about. Conservation and sustainability were big opportunities to bring systemic thinking to critical work, and I wanted to be a part of that. I've spent my entire career finding ways to reduce workloads with thoughtful automation, and getting those tools into the hands of people fighting for the planet's future is the most satisfaction I can imagine having career-wise.

Was there a woman that inspired you to pursue a career in conservation, and how did they influence you?

Naturalism has always been important to my family; my mom actually would take me out of school to do volunteer work in national parks on Arbor Day. I'm not sure when that general interest in touching dirt became an interest in conservation but I know that some of it comes to Tiffany, the woman who led the airboat tour in New Orleans I went on when I was in my teens. She answered endless questions about Hurricane Katrina and provided details about how the land management strategies had changed the storm's impact on the area. She was deeply aware of how the world is a single system, and she was so vulnerable with how it affected her personally. She absolutely shaped my interest and approach to the field.

What advice would you give to other women interested in pursuing a career in conservation?

The best advice I can give is to figure out what you can bring to an underfunded, underrepresented field and use that to push in. Understanding the current state of conservation is absolutely critical to successfully getting into the field. Focus on your area of interest, learn the shape of it, and be the person who can make it work better.