Meet Our Leaders – Putney Student Travel

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), Master of Professional Studies in Conservation Biology; Miami University, B.A., Zoology, minors in Botany and Plant Biotechnology

Stephanie is a field biologist, ethnobotanist, and plant explorer. Her life’s mission is centered around plant conservation. Her master’s thesis was an ethnobotanical expedition, studying the medicinal plants among the Ngöbe indigenous communities in the Ngöbe-Bugle Comarca of Panama. She journeyed to remote, isolated regions of La Comarca to immerse in the Ngöbe culture to learn their traditional ways of being and sacred beliefs, and to understand the dynamic relationship found between people and plants over time and space. For over a decade she has worked on plant conservation, ecological restoration, monitoring and collecting baseline data sets, and adaptive land management initiatives and research. She has worked with the National Park Service in the northeastern U.S.; with the Bureau of Land Management in the Mojave Desert of California and in the sage-brush country of Montana; with the Forest Service in the midwestern U.S.; as well as state parks in New York and ethnobotanical pursuits in Panama and the Amazon of Colombia. She has taught through Duke University’s Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP), in which she had the exceptional opportunity to lead two field study abroad programs for high school students in Costa Rica. She has also led with Putney in the summer of 2021 to Ecuador and the Galápagos with a focus on wildlife conservation. These experiences have woven her path to pursue and dedicate her life to being a steward to the land, while inspiring the future leaders of tomorrow. Stephanie loves everything to do with the outdoors—hiking, camping, geeking out to plants, as well as immersing in other cultures, yoga, belly dancing, salsa dancing, photography, gardening, learning to cook new cuisines, and reading, to name a few. She is proficient in Spanish.