Anna was born and raised in the high desert of southern California and didn’t explore much of the natural world until later in life. Her fascination and connection to fish and aquatics sparked during family fishing trips at local urban lakes and pier-fishing on the Pacific coast. Anna is a daughter to Vietnamese immigrant parents, a sister, a bilingual conversationalist, a nature photographer, and a storyteller.

As a Fisheries Biologist and Environmental Educator, Anna is passionate about using place-based education to help communities get inspired to become stewards or rediscover their connection to the environment. Over the years, she has advocated for equitable, inclusive, and accessible education for under-resourced and BIPOC youths. She’s worked for nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies throughout Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado over the last nine years, assisting with informal educational programming, community outreach and engagement, freshwater and marine ecological research, fisheries data collection and management, wildlife advocacy, and scientific communication.

Her adventurous career has led her to many seasonal jobs, which range from collecting zooplankton samples 15 miles offshore along the Oregon coast to rafting and collecting data from spawned-out Chinook salmon carcasses to educating the families and student groups in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem while viewing apex predators and geothermal features.

Anna’s community-based mindset has influenced people to think more deeply about their place in the world and how they’re part of the ecosystem. With her cultural background, she believes diverse perspectives and personnel allow for better decision-making in conserving the natural world.

Anna obtained a B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences with a specialization in Natural Resources and Environmental Law and Policy from Oregon State University; she is also a Certified Interpretative Guide (CIG) and Wilderness First Responder (WFR). She currently serves as Vice Chair for the Environmental Justice Section for the Ecological Society of America and was recently appointed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Director to the Oregon Hatchery Research Center (OHRC) board. Anna Le is the Founder and Owner of Grayling Education LLC, a small environmental education consulting business. She is working on getting certified as a Trauma-Informed Educator and is obtaining an MSc. in Science Education from Montana State University to further her development as an educator. Anna hopes to bridge the gap between conservation and education and get more people engaged and excited about the natural world.