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Spending years in zoos and with conservation-focused African communities instilled Lily Maynard’s passion for spreading conservation. Lily grew up surrounded by inspiring animals at the Cincinnati Zoo. More recently, she was a zoo educator and program evaluator, as well as a leader of environmental education programs in Kenya and Belize. She conducted ecological and conservation research during her biology degree at Smith College, in national parks in South Africa and Zambia, and with communities in Botswana and Kenya. While investigating the coexistence of Maasai communities and lions in southern Kenya with the South Rift Association of Landowners, she learned people’s capacity to choose conservation. Currently, Lily is augmenting her environmental education and conservation management skills with further studies as a PhD student at the University of Florida to explore how collaboration can enhance conservation. Her master’s degree assessed stakeholder collaboration in Kenyan community-based conservancies, and her doctoral degree in Interdisciplinary Ecology is examining the collective conservation impacts of zoos and aquaria.