Meet the 2025 Planning Team

Brianna Amingwa, affectionately known as ‘Ranger Bri,’ is a passionate environmental educator and founder of Deeply Rooted Outdoor Education. With a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science from Michigan State University, she has dedicated her career to fostering meaningful connections between communities and nature. Before founding her business, Brianna enjoyed a rewarding career with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for nearly 13 years. She supervised a thriving environmental education program at America's First Urban Wildlife Refuge and concluded her career as the National Coordinator of Youth Employment and Environmental Education. 

Named a Global Top 30 Under 30 Environmental Educator by the North American Association of Environmental Educators, Brianna has developed and managed education programs reaching nearly 18,000 students annually. Her expertise includes culturally responsive teaching, trauma-informed approaches, and mastery of Next Generation Science Standards. Today, Deeply Rooted Outdoor Education supports students, families, and educators in finding connection, community, and comfort in nature. Brianna’s work is rooted in her own experiences as a “city kid” discovering the wonder of the outdoors. She remains committed to breaking barriers and inspiring others to explore the natural world.

Danielle Belleny is a San Antonio-raised wildlife biologist and birder. In 2022, Danielle published her first book, This Is A Book For People Who Love Birds, and in 2023 she released a children’s book, The Junior Birders Handbook, Currently, Danielle works as a staff biologist at Plateau Land & Wildlife Management in Texas. In her free time, she enjoys nature watching in cemeteries. Other work by Danielle centers the biological importance of cemeteries and encourages a shift in North American death culture. Her writings can be found in Birding and Vermilion Flycatcher.

Photo Credit: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (c) 2022, (Maegan Lanham, TPWD)

Starting at Yale University as an Ecology and Evolutionary Biology major, Adé is currently pursuing both a B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in Biology at Southern Connecticut State University. Adé’s interests include evolution, paleontology, and science communication and outreach. He has worked at the Yale Peabody Museum as both a collections assistant and tour guide, observed the feeding habits of common terns in Maine with Project Puffin, excavated fossils in Arizona’s Painted Desert, and currently runs the YouTube channel Adasaur, focusing on prehistoric life and highlighting the diversity of the ancient past and the people who research it.

Ayanna B. (she/her) was born and raised in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where her love for the outdoors and wildlife began at an early age. Today, Ayanna has over six years of field experience, a B.S. in Animal Science, and an M.S. in Integrative Biology. Her master’s research focused on the diversification of Lesser Antillean anoles (lizards), known for their ecological variety and evolutionary significance. As a Wildlife Biologist and Hepetologist in training, she’s particularly interested in phylogenetics, endangered species conservation, sustainable land management, fire ecology, GIS analysis, and educational outreach.

Deja is a Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. student, bird guide, and public STEM figure at NC State University. Her work prioritizes investigating environmental data gaps in low-income and minority neighborhoods and connecting communities with participatory science as a tool for creating community connection, awareness, and advocacy. With a B.Sc. in Natural Resources and an M.Sc. in Fisheries and Wildlife Conservation Biology, she uses her training to connect people across North Carolina with neighborhood nature through a variety of virtual, in-person, visual, and auditory experiences.

Jen holds a master’s degree in creative arts therapy and is currently working towards her licensure as a mental health counselor. In 2019, she was inspired to create an artist’s collaborative to combine her professional and creative arts identities. This collaborative ultimately became Warrior Dreamzz LLC a team of visual visionaries who specialize in the film art form Eco-Cinema. Their films sit at the intersection of entertainment, education and advocacy.

Joseph is a life-long lover of nature and wildlife. As an adult he became a wildlife photographer to document his experiences outdoors. His work has been featured in the Smithsonian, Audubon Magazine, Discover Wildlife, and Bloomberg Magazine, as well as on the Ologies podcast. A graduate of University of Oklahoma with a degree in Sociology focused on inequality and systemic oppression, his photography has also been archived at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History. You can find him staring adoringly into the anterior median eyes of jumping spiders, narrowly avoiding snake bites, listening to the cacophony of amorous frogs and toads, or birding.

Dara has an affinity for watching organisms interact with their environment and is currently researching meaningful ways to connect historically excluded populations to natural and cultural resources through funded placemaking projects. She has had the pleasure of interpreting wildlife at the Smithsonian National Zoo, conducting microsurgery on passerine birds in tropical primary and secondary rainforests, walking rehabilitated mountain lions in Bolivia’s Amazonian jungle, and fighting invasive/non-native plant species in Florida’s panhandle. Driven by the desire to deepen her awareness of the world, yet cognizant of the role systemic racism plays in ownership, access, and the perceived threat of violence in outdoor spaces, Dara’s latent introduction into meaningful scientific inquiry as it relates to coexisting organisms resulted in a fascination with the natural world that transcended into deep questioning concerning issues of access, opportunity, visibility, and narratives.