ABOUT THE EXPERT:

Olivia is an experienced environmental educator, facilitator, and collaborator. She currently works as a Community Science Coordinator with the Center for Biodiversity and Community Science at the California Academy of Sciences, mobilizing networks of people to contribute to community science initiatives such as City Nature Challenge globally and Snapshot Cal Coast in California using iNaturalist as a tool for people to connect with nature through submitting their observations for science research. As an Education Program Coordinator, she built confidence in STEM teaching for out-of-school time educators and provided affordable and accessible STEM resources to youth programs across the country with Science Action Club. Justice Outside has recognized Olivia for her extraordinary leadership and commitment to equity in the outdoors as an alumna of their Rising Leaders Fellowship program and current participant in their Network for Network Leaders cohort.

Olivia is a skilled public speaker and has presented at the C*Sci Symposium, American Alliance for Museums Annual Meeting, Together Bay Area Conference, Institute for Women Surfers, Green 2.0, Half-Earth Day, and PGM ONE. She graduated from CSU Chico with a BA in Geography and Latin American Studies and was awarded Geography Student of the Year at CSU Chico in 2015. Olivia has volunteered with Brown Girl Surf since 2016, supporting their surf days, fundraising, and policy advocacy. In her previous role as a Program Director at City Surf Project, she helped expand physical education surfing courses for students in San Francisco through grant management, curriculum development, operations, and event planning. She has worked on several coastal access and environmental justice initiatives at government agencies such as the California Coastal Commission and California State Coastal Conservancy where she currently serves as an Advisory Board Member for their Explore the Coast grant program. Olivia is a steering committee member for ChangeScale, a regional environmental education professional development provider and community building group.

CONTACT:

Contact Olivia VanDamme at Experts@diversegreen.org.