Amber Wendler, Ph.D. Candidate in Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech

Amber Wendler kicks off the day sharing her passion for making science and the outdoors more inclusive. Wendler has a breadth of outdoor experiences from field research, outdoor education, volunteer work, and recreation that has taken her across the U.S. and Latin America. As a co-editor of the book Been Outside: Adventures of Black Women, Nonbinary, and Gender Nonconforming People in Nature, and as a runner; backpacker; birdwatcher; and kayaker, Wendler offers her perspective on storytelling in the outdoors and amplifying voices that have been silenced and excluded.