Allison Nelson is the founder and director of Gold Country Avian Studies, a nonprofit organization focusing on the research and conservation of birds in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. She runs a year-round bird banding station at Empire Mine State Historic Park in Grass Valley, CA, and performs avian surveys and provides education programs in the Foothills region. Allison received her MS in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology from San Francisco State University. Her research has focused on the migratory geography of the Hermit Thrush through the use of geolocator tracking devices. Hermit Thrushes drew Allison to Sitka when her geolocator data indicated that thrushes wintering in the San Francisco Bay Area migrate to breeding grounds in Southeast Alaska. She is also collaborating with researchers at UCLA to develop a Hermit Thrush genoscape, a map of this species’ genetic variation across its breeding range. Allison is a USGS federally permitted bird bander, certified by the North American Banding Council. She has worked as a biologist for Point Blue Conservation Science, the University of Queensland, the San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project, and the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. She has also worked in environmental conservation and education at San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory, Outward Bound, and the Appalachian Mountain Club. She serves on the board of the Western Bird Banding Association and on the Lands Committee of Bear Yuba Land Trust. Allison hopes that her research and educational programs will inspire people to become stewards of birds and their habitats. National Parks Service Fellow - May-June, 2018 Allison's activities in Sitka Raven Radio Morning Interview Bird walk in Totem Park Event A video highlighting Allison's work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kJ68T92Flw