Mary Kazmir

I attribute my success to my ability to combine my 30 years of experience in marketing and education with my hands-on work as a wildlife field professional, dog handler, and photographer. What really drives me is turning that hands-on experience into compelling education and outreach. I created programs that support STEM learning, environmental literacy, and personal development, and I've made them adaptable for youth, adult learners, and professional groups. My passion for photography has been with me since high school in the 80s when I worked on the yearbook, and I especially love photographing dogs, which is actually what initially connected me with the goose management work. But more than anything, I love being outside - there's a real freedom in being in charge of my own schedule, whether I'm getting up at 4:30 in the morning or working later in the day. As I've gotten older, I've learned that time is really a privilege, and being outside, taking those deep breaths, with nobody watching me or demanding my time - that peace and freedom is what fulfills me. I can do what I want, and that self-care and intentionality with my energy is key to everything I do.

For most of my career, I didn’t think I had any great advice guiding me. If someone did offer it, I wasn’t ready to hear it. My learning came from doing, from falling on my face, getting back up, and figuring out who I was in the process. Looking back, every role I ever held taught me something essential: how to communicate, how to lead, how to trust myself, how to navigate conflict, how to build something from nothing. I didn’t realize it at the time, but each job was quietly preparing me to eventually create CLE Goose Girl. The turning point came when my therapist said something that stopped me in my tracks: “Don’t wait for permission.” It hit me harder than any advice ever would have. I realized I’d been standing in front of a door, waiting for someone else to open it, waiting for approval, validation, or a sign that it was “the right time.” But that door was mine all along. Mine to open. Mine to walk through. Mine to build a path beyond.

Launching CLE Goose Girl wasn’t about having everything figured out. It was about finally trusting that I didn’t need permission to pursue the work I wanted to do.

Chasing a paycheck will only carry you so far. What truly sustains a career is knowing what you’re good at, and having the courage to build from those strengths. Stop looking sideways at what everyone else is doing. Focus on your own abilities, your own growth, your own path forward. And never be afraid to walk away when a job stops serving you. Work should give you something back: purpose, growth, respect, alignment. If it doesn’t, trust that there is an employer out there who needs exactly what you bring. Don’t stay small in a place that can’t see your value.

The biggest challenge in my field right now is the widespread misinformation and lack of education about wildlife management. People see 15 to 30 seconds of what we're doing and create this whole scenario in their head of how horrible we are, that we're terrorizing these poor animals, that the dog is trained to kill them, that we must have hundreds of dead geese in our car - and none of that is what's going on. The light bulb moment for me came when we were verbally threatened by someone claiming they were going to shoot and kill us and our dog because they didn't agree of the service we were providing. That's when I realized people don't understand what we're doing here - they're getting misinformation off the internet instead of walking up to me and asking questions. There's a huge need for educational outreach to help people understand the dangers of feeding wildlife, what happens when you feed them the wrong foods, how it changes their behaviors long-term, and how those changes affect their ability to reproduce. For example, when geese eat large amounts of bread, their wings can become deformed, creating a whole domino effect. If people understood this, they wouldn't be feeding them. The opportunity is in creating programs that educate not only adults but children on these ecological issues and how just one animal can really affect the whole ecosystem.

The values most important to me are authenticity, freedom, and being intentional with my time and energy. I've learned not to live up to someone else's expectations or go out of my way to please other people, because I found that people don't appreciate it - you twist yourself in a pretzel to be what they want, meet their deadlines, and then it's just 'what else do you have?' with no validation or appreciation. I would say do what really makes you happy and fulfills you, and speak up for yourself, which is something I did not do growing up. My generation was taught you did not talk back to a boss or an elder - they automatically got respect but didn't earn it, and you didn't get it back even when you earned it. I really applaud the younger generation for standing up for their values, knowing their value, and maintaining those boundaries whether at work or with a partner. Another key value is knowing when to walk away - I stayed loyal to jobs far too long when there was no validation, whether verbally or in the form of raises, when I should have moved on. Now, especially as a new grandmother, I'm very selective about how I spend my time - I ask myself, is this on brand, is this really going to get the message out, or am I just spinning my wheels? Time is really a privilege as you get older, and being outside, taking those deep breaths, with nobody demanding my time - that freedom and peace is what I value most. If you're letting someone else lead you, you're going to go off your course, so you have to set your own plan and know where you want to spend your time and energy.