Zoey Greenberg

Zoey grew up in Bellingham, Washington, where the Salish Sea and temperate rainforest shaped her interest in coastal ecosystems. Her studies led her to tall ships along the eastern U.S., where she taught young sailors to haul sail, sing sea shanties, and observe the marine environment. She later moved to Pennsylvania, where an unexpected fascination with vultures influenced her conservation career. As an environmental educator and vulture trainer at Penn State’s nature center, and later through raptor conservation training at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, she developed programs highlighting the ecological importance of scavengers. She also worked as a migration counter monitoring golden eagles along the Appalachian flyway before returning west to work as a whale watch naturalist in the San Juan Islands, interpreting humpback whale and killer whale ecology.

Zoey holds a B.A. in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic and an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana, where her thesis combined prose poetry with environmental ethics, examining invasive species management. She is the science writer for the Journal of Raptor Research, facilitates boat-based writing workshops with the Freeflow Institute, and serves as a North American compiler for the IUCN’s biannual newsletter on global vulture research and conservation.

Outside of her professional work, Zoey plays volleyball and ultimate frisbee, practices belly dance and enjoys creative writing. She divides her time between the Pacific Northwest, Hawaiʻi, and her Toyota Tacoma.