Established 1992

Waukesha County Land Conservancy

protecting and caring for environmentally significant land
and water in Waukesha County for future generations

Meet Justine Ghai, WCLC’s new Education and Outreach Manager

 

We’re pleased to announce that Justine Ghai has joined the WCLC team as our education and outreach manager. Justine will lead our new Community Conservation Partnership program, dramatically increasing our engagement so that we can better care for our region’s oak ecosystems, , reach more citizens from underserved communities, and provide nature access for all. She will also help us build an alliance of conservation and environmental education organizations to mitigate duplicate efforts.
 In addition to working as a zookeeper in animal husbandry and conservation education, Justine led the volunteer program for San Diego Humane Society’s “Project Wildlife” initiative for the past six years. This program boasts 350 active volunteers who donate over 70,000 hours of service each year. In this position, she designed a successful volunteer training program for more than 20 different volunteer roles and an engaging extended learning series with 16 classes per year led by conservation industry professionals. 

 

Justine’s love for land conservation has been with her since she was a child, but it grew while she was doing graduate fieldwork in Namibia, Africa in 2016. She worked closely with the Cheetah Conservation Fund to engage local landowners to conserve the cheetah (and other top predators) while still maintaining their property and cattle. She helped landowners see the importance of the cheetah in their landscape and worked with them to implement long-term conservation tools and ongoing relationships.

Justine grew up in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and has since spent five years in Asheville, North Carolina and seven years in San Diego, California. Justine and her husband, Puneet, moved to Milwaukee in January for Puneet's job at Froedtert Health and so that Justine could continue her career in the field of conservation. They currently live in Whitefish Bay with their dog, Clementine, and two cats, Nesta and Zinnia. On the weekends, you can find them exploring local restaurants and farmers markets or in the forest somewhere.

Justine has a bachelor’s of science in ecology and environmental biology from The University of North Carolina and a master’s of arts in biology with a focus on community-based conservation from Miami University. We couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Justine to the WCLC family and see her exceptional talents and experience in action.