Curator of Education
Detroit Zoological Society

Claire has worked for the Detroit Zoo for 16 years, building and facilitating partnerships with local school districts and helping thousands of students and teachers connect their classrooms to real-world learning experiences. She also works with teachers through carefully planned and implemented professional development workshops to take their science curriculum a step further. She is an advocate for making science accessible – she has developed camps, early learner programs, afterschool programming and teen volunteer opportunities that do just that. In 2009, she helped form the zoo’s partnership with Oakland County’s Children’s Village – a residential treatment and detention center for youth. This program instills a respect and reverence for the natural world through various activities, including gardening and taking part in amphibian conservation projects alongside zoo staff. Claire also leads the zoo’s involvement in the Adopt-A-School program in Peru, which aims to preserve the rainforest one child at a time. The Detroit Zoo has partnered with the Civil Association for Conservation of the Peruvian Amazon Environment since 1999, supporting children and teachers in rural areas of the rainforest. Each spring, more than 3,000 students and teachers receive a year’s worth of basic school supplies, delivered by Claire and a group of volunteers.

The information presented here was accurate as of January 1, 2018.