Michelle Madsen is a 3L at the University of Oregon School of Law. Born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, she was constantly wandering through the woods and wading around Panhandle bays looking for anything wild to bring home. That curiosity, paired with an admiration of Steve Irwin, led her to pursue a career in environmental activism. As an undergrad, she attended the University of Florida and graduated with a BS in Zoology. She was fortunate enough to travel to Kenya to work on an acacia-ant mutualism project. During one of those trips, she had an inspiring conversation with the head of an ecotourism group who explained conservation issues from the prospective of a Kenyan that blew away all her Western perceptions. Since that discussion, she has welcomed a new mission, from researching conservation to coupling Western and Eastern ideas on conservation and what that means for the environment as a whole.