My name is Angela Myers and I am located in Oklahoma, where I work for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as a park ranger for a national wildlife refuge. This is my third semester at UNL, and prior to this degree I attended University of Nebraska at Kearney, where I earned my Master of Science in Biology in 2014. I conducted graduate research during that timeframe in Brazil underneath Dr. Wyatt Hoback, who has since moved right down the road from where I am now, at Oklahoma State University. As the saying goes, I have worn many hats, and before working for USFWS I have held a diverse set of positions, including working as a non-lead ammunition program developer for an avian non-profit organization, working as an adjunct biology professor at a four year state university here in Oklahoma, and I was even enlisted for four years in the United States Army as a combat medic, which included an all expenses paid vacation to Afghanistan in 2013. In conjunction with my military service, I have been a nationally certified EMT-B since 2011.
I have always been interested in animals, especially those that are misunderstood by the general public. As a teenager I had an entire room devoted to reptiles--my parents were very tolerant to say the least--and at one point was keeping over fifty separate species of snakes. Becoming interested in insects almost seemed inevitable, as much like snakes, "bugs" often get an undeserved bad reputation. My refuge just recently was awarded a grant (that I wrote the proposal for) to establish and implement a K-12 insect education program that I hope to roll out this summer. Environmental education is my heart and soul, and this degree program fits very well with what I currently do at work. I blame many hours watching Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin as a kid for my passion of spreading information of misunderstood creatures.
I am engaged, and in my spare time my fiancé and I live on and run a small scale farm which includes chickens, honeybees, geese, cattle, and horses. My fiancé is a firefighter/paramedic, and we will also be volunteering this summer as trail medics/guides to help with running a stable that conducts trail rides on two state parks. I am also certified as an archery instructor, am working on my wildland firefighting red card, and hopefully will be certified as a kayak instructor this summer. In my "free" time I love reading, playing the ukulele, and hiking with my dogs.