Team Spotlight: Meet Hollaway's Senior Environmental Scientist, Kasey Clarke

Meet Kasey Clarke, a Senior Environmental Scientist at Hollaway Environmental + Communications Services, Inc! Kasey manages several environmental projects, mentors new environmental scientists and interns, leads field surveys, develops technical reports and documents, and performs a myriad of other tasks. Kasey has also achieved environmental compliance for a wide array of projects along the Texas Gulf Coast.

With a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from Texas A&M University, Kasey has had a bit of a non-traditional path to her current role.

Upon graduation, Kasey interned at the Houston Zoo where she worked with the critically endangered Attwater’s prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido attwateri). The conservation project included a robust breeding program where Attwater’s prairie chickens were captively bred and raised until the chicks were large enough to be released into the wild.

After her internship was completed and the Attwater’s prairie chicken chicks were released to their new home, Kasey began a position as a permanent zookeeper in the Houston Zoo’s bird department. In addition to her regular bird husbandry duties, Kasey was a member of the incubation team. She was responsible for monitoring the development of artificially incubated eggs. This was one of Kasey’s favorite responsibilities while at the zoo.

“It was so interesting to watch the development of the embryos over time and to do blood draws from the eggs for DNA testing,” says Kasey.

While working at the zoo, Kasey applied for and was awarded conservation grant money to participate in a conservation project located on the island of Saipan in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). The project was part of the Mariana Avifauna Conservation (MAC) Program with the Pacific Bird Conservation organization. The goal of the MAC program is to translocate native forest bird species from the inhabited islands of the CNMI (Saipan, Rota, and Tinian) to the uninhabited northern islands. This project focused on protecting native birds from the invasive brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis). Kasey’s role was to assist with mist netting birds, caring for them in the holding room, assisting with vet examinations, and banding. This experience was immensely rewarding for Kasey and was a pivotal moment in her career.

“After participating in the MAC program, I knew I wanted to do more work outside and in environmental science,” says Kasey.

In 2018, Kasey began as an Associate Environmental Scientist here at Hollaway. Since then, she has learned the ins and outs of environmental consulting and has grown both personally and professionally.

Kasey currently holds an Associate Wildlife Biologist (AWB) certification from The Wildlife Society, Wetland Professional in Training (WPIT) certification from the Society of Wetland Scientists, and a Part 107 drone license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). She hopes to upgrade her AWB to Certified Wildlife Biologist (CWB) and WPIT to Professional Wetland Scientist (PWS) within the next few years.

Outside of work, Kasey is an avid rock climber. Kasey and her husband travel to Austin almost every weekend, and sometimes around the world, to climb on real rocks!

Kasey also enjoys bird watching, camping, and photography.

Kasey is an integral part of the Hollaway team and our resident Ornithologists. Check out our website and learn more about Kasey and our team of experts.