Naomi Blinick is a master’s student in the Conservation Sciences program at the University of Minnesota.  She is investigating the effects of invasive zebra mussels on food webs and mercury concentrations in walleye lakes in Minnesota.  She has a bachelor’s degree in environmental & marine studies from Prescott College in Arizona and has spent a decade working as a field biologist in various marine, coastal, island, inland terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems.  She is a dedicated science communicator, both through prior roles with federal natural resource agencies and by incorporating that passion into her own research and field biology work. She also ran her own graphic design and photography business in support of science and conservation, and authored two books on the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.