Kirsten Hines

I attribute my success to passion and perseverance. I really care about what I do and I care about influencing other people, but I'm not the kind of person that's going to be wagging my finger and preaching. I'm trying to lead by inspiration and just never giving up. I keep going at it because it is something I care about and I'm passionate about. Even if it wasn't my career, it's something I would probably still be doing, so the fact that I can do it as my career is really a gift. Somehow, I would be working in this field one way or another, influencing it in this field, hopefully.

Find what works for you. I've discovered I'm a good teacher, for example, so I spend a lot of time teaching workshops and giving classes and speaking. It's really about diversifying. I learned early on that magazines and the quick turnaround is too quick for me, so I focus on what I can do - I do books because it gives me plenty of time to really dig in and go the depth I need to go for me to feel like I've accomplished it. If you can turn things around quickly, then look towards magazines or look towards online. There are so many opportunities out there nowadays. It's just a matter of finding the one that works for you. If you want it, you just do it. You'll figure it out.

In Miami and Florida in general, development is rampant, so one of the biggest challenges is just protecting your soul as you're working on this - facing all of that, seeing that it's happening, and knowing that there's just some people you're not going to convince. You're trying to keep the hope alive enough to be motivated to keep going and hoping that maybe you'll influence the right person, but also recognizing that it's largely not going the way of conservation anymore in Florida. Florida used to be on the cutting edge as a leader of conservation - we have about 30% of our lands protected, which is a goal that globally people are working towards getting 30% protected by 2030. We've been there, but we're repealing a bunch of laws that were making that happen, and now they're trying to scale back on some of that. The flip side is there are a lot of nonprofit organizations and people also in the government that are working very hard to actually connect that 30% that's there and recreate the wildlife corridor. So it's like anything in the world - there's gray. You can choose to look at the positive or you can choose to look at the depressing. When you're out there doing the photos and you're watching entire neighborhoods get bulldozed, that's hard. But you keep talking to the people who are on the ground trying to make a difference, and that's hopeful.

Conservation is absolutely central to everything I do. The reason I became a biologist is because I was primarily concerned with conservation, and that concern hasn't changed. Connections are really important to me - not just with family, but also friends and other people that you meet, the community. We're in an era where resilience really matters, both internal resilience in terms of individuals, but also in terms of environment and community, being resilient and able to shift with what's happening at the moment. Staying connected is crucial - staying connected to the planet and to those around you. For me, that's a 3D experience. I know a lot of people are on social media these days, and that's really hard for me. I like the actual person in person, or connecting to the tree, or whatever. I am looking for the real 3D connection. I think that's something that's being lost - we're losing the environment, we're losing those connections, and I think they're both really important. Authenticity is important too - I'm not the kind of person that's going to be wagging my finger and preaching. I try to lead by inspiration.