KRISTEN COONEY

Kristen Cooney is a wildlife photographer, naturalist guide, and conservationist from Pennsylvania, where her adventures in the forests and grasslands of the Mid-Atlantic region sparked her passion for wildlife conservation.

As a child, Kristen was always outdoors exploring with her grandparents’ nature field guides and film camera in hand. As she grew up, she developed another passion: Sharing the natural world with her community. This led her to Ursinus College to study and earn a Bachelor's in Visual Arts and Environmental Studies. Today, Kristen blends the arts and sciences to share her love for wildlife and wild places with everyone from weathered naturalists to folks discovering their first bird.

Kristen was deeply inspired by her initial fieldwork project, monitoring grassland birds and raptors with a local land trust in Pennsylvania. The experience set her life’s course, and today, her work centers on bird conservation. Most recently, she spent the field season in Southeast Alaska as a naturalist photography guide and conservation tech sharing Alaska’s beauty with visitors from around the world, and assisting with several bird research projects in the Tongass National Forest.