Pro Bono work: Tapir Specialist Group
I'm particularly passionate about wildlife habitat conservation. Some of the most meaningful design projects were related to the volunteering I did for 8 years for zoo and conservation related organizations.
My role: Webmaster and UX Designer, Marketing chair
Skills: UX Design, info architecture, HTML, CSS, content creation, logo creation and some graphic design
Launch date: 2004, ongoing maintenance until 2010
Outer panel of mailing brochure for TSG
Inner panel of mailing brochure
In 2002, in the early part of my career, I committed much of my non-working time to the Tapir Specialist Group, a consortium of wildlife biologists from around the world. After quickly befriending them, I took the helm of designing and launching a website for the group (tapirs.org, the #1 search result for “tapirs” for years).
Among unique features I built for the site was a photo collection compiled of the best pictures taken of wild tapirs by researchers in the field. We used proceeds from photo usage fees to fund the TSG's conservation fund.
Other fundraising involved annual mailing campaigns to our growing mailing list of tapir enthusiasts, and auctions held at 5 tapir symposia meetings held in tapir range countries in Latin America and Asia.
In those 8 years of collaboration, I helped to elevate global awareness of an endangered animal and the work the dedicated scientists were doing to save it from extinction. I look back on this particular collaboration with a gratitude for its shared passion in conserving wildlife and sharing information.
The site continues to this day, though under a new webmaster.
Tapir Photo Collection gallery on TSG website
One of the perks of my deep involvement with the TSG is my lifelong friendship with its chair, Patricia Medici. In 2018 I took my family to visit her at her research site in the Brazilian Pantanal. Here we are commemorating the 4th (and thankfully last) tapir capture of the day; it was the most animals captured in one day in Pati’s 20 years of field research.
By the way, that tapir is ok—she was sedated by wildlife veterinarians who examined her for her health and then reversed the anesthesia. She trotted off into the brush afterwards, unharmed, but probably a bit puzzled by her experience.