When she reflects on the timeline of her career, Juliet Slutzker can trace her accomplishments back to her degree in Program in the Environment, which she completed in 2012. “Without my PitE degree, I would have never gone to the University of Michigan Biological Station and I would have never met my Master's advisor, who was a professor there,” Slutzker said. From there, Slutzker completed her Master’s in Biology at Bowling Green State University. She credits this as being an opportunity that gave her the skills needed to secure a position with the National Wildlife Federation in 2015, where she is now working full time.

Slutzker’s experience with the National Wildlife Federation encompasses some of the most impactful moments in her career. Her work as an AmeriCorps environmental educator for the federation led to a particularly memorable project that she remembers with pride and fulfillment: Slutzker worked with a student-led eco team at a local Title 1 school in Missoula, Montana, to kickstart a revitalization of their outdoor classroom. The process included auditing the space to determine which native plants could be added to foster local habitats, working with a local building materials reuse center to teach the students how to build their own tables and benches using reclaimed wood, and gifting the students ponderosa pine seedlings to plant at their homes at the culmination of the project.

As a conservation professional with a love for interpersonal and community engagement, Slutzker knows the feeling of losing sight of one’s purpose when in a desk work role that is less hands-on. “To combat this, I like to get out into nature, go for a hike, and enjoy our public spaces as often as possible, Slutzker said. “I try to identify the birds and trees I find on these little excursions, and I'm reminded why I was drawn to the conservation field. I want to live in a world where birds are singing and trees are standing tall on every walk I go on, and the walks people go on 50 and 100 years from now.”