Jessie Ditmore

Project Manager

Having grown up on the California coast, I’ve loved working with my hands and spending a majority of my waking moments in the sun for as long as I can remember. I received my Bachelor’s degree in 2014 from Vassar College in New York, during which time I taught animal husbandry to students on Vassar’s 700 acre preserve. My 2016-2017 internship with STRAW gave me the opportunity to combine my passion for physical fieldwork with my love for conservation science into a career. I’m drawn to aquatic and riparian work, especially that which involves the Endangered Species Act and habitat restoration—convenient seeing as the marriage of the two is how STRAW’s story began with the endangered California freshwater shrimp! Since interning at Point Blue, I’ve worked for NatureBridge in Olympic National Park teaching about salmon and the Elwha River restoration and backpacking with students on the Olympic coast. I then worked for US Fish and Wildlife monitoring endangered and threatened species of sucker and trout in southern Oregon.

It was hard to stay away from Point Blue for long; I’m back as a project manager and doing what I love most with the keenest, funniest, and most supportive people on the planet. As a project manager with STRAW, I work with my teammates to coordinate the planning, implementation, and maintenance of STRAW’s many riparian and wetland sites spanning the counties of the Bay Area and beyond. When I’m not out in the field, you’ll probably still find me outside road/gravel biking, eating food, backpacking, and raising chicks.

---