Meet Dr. Kristen Lear – the 8^th female scientist featured in our Women Doing Science blog series.

Bachelor of Science, Zoology

Doctorate, Integrative Conservation

Dr. Lear is a bat conservationist who currently serves as Bat Conservation International’s Agave Restoration Program Director with an initiative to restore critical foraging habitat for endangered pollinating bats and support community livelihoods in the U.S. Southwest and northern Mexico. As a bat conservationist, she seeks to develop practical, equitable, and meaningful solutions to bat conservation challenges through collaborative research, partnership with local communities, and public engagement and outreach.

INTERVIEWEE: Dr. Kristen Lear

INTERVIEWER: Anna Banda

Banda: Welcome to our blog series for Azura Consulting. My name is Anna Banda, and I’m here in Dallas, TX where our headquarters is, and we started a Women in Science blog series inviting female scientists to discuss their scientific careers. Today, we’re welcoming Dr. Kristen Lear, our 8th guest in this series. Thank you for joining us. So first, please tell us about yourself, your job title, what that entails.

Lear: Yeah, I’m Dr. Kristen Lear. I am a bat conservationist, so I work around the world to research and protect bat species that are at risk of extinction. I have been working with bats for over 15 years now, and I work at Bat Conservation International [BCI]. We are a nonprofit that works around the world to end bat extinctions. So, it’s my passion. Bats are my passion. I’ve been doing this for quite a while, and at BCI, I lead our agave restoration initiative where we are working to restore agave plants, which we use to make things like tequila and mezcal working to restore those plants for threatened and endangered pollinating bats that rely on those plants for food. And, you know, for nectar. So, we’re working across the southwest US and Mexico to restore those plants for the bats but also for people to continue harvesting and using those plants for their cultural purposes.

Banda:  Oh, that sounds amazing. I mean, I love it.

Lear: An awesome job, yeah.

Banda:  That. So, when did you know this is what you wanted to do?

Lear: I, I had an inkling very, very early on as a kid. I had always been drawn to the creepy crawlies, you know, spiders, snakes, rats. I had pet rats growing up. And bats, like bats, just fascinated me when we would go out for Girl Scout night hikes in the evenings, we could see the bats flying around. And I was always kind of drawn to them because most people kind of have that some, well, not most people anymore, but some people have that kind of fear or misconceptions about that. So, at a very, very early age, I started learning about bats. For my Girl Scout Silver Award project in 6th grade, I actually built four bat houses for my project and that was my first kind of unofficial introduction into bat conservation when I was 12. And then, yeah, in college I got my first experience hands on working with bat research down in Texas as an undergrad, and that, that is when I knew 100% that bat conservation was what I wanted to do the rest of my life for my career.

Banda:  So, what’s one of your more favorite memories of your career?

Lear: That’s a hard one. There have been so many. I think one of the coolest things about bats is that bats are all over the world. They are literally found on every continent except Antarctica. So, you can really travel anywhere in the world to study and protect bats. So, I’ve gotten to go to really cool places like Australia, Mexico, Hungary, Belize, Costa Rica, you know, to study bats and, and see bats. So, I think that’s one of my favorite parts of the job is getting to see all these cool bats around the world. But I think one of the most tangible moments of my career was when I was first getting involved in back conservation as an undergrad. I spent a few summers down in Texas studying the pest control services of bats in pecan orchards in Central Texas. I was a research assistant, so I was helping a PhD student with her own research. And one of the things that I did was implemented my own independent project for my senior honors thesis in my last year of college, and I built 18 different bat houses to compare bat use of different designs of bat houses to see if they preferred one type over the other. And so I, you know, I’ve built these 18 bat houses from scratch with these big, you know, power tools and table saws, went to the lumberyard in the small town to get the lumber, built these bath houses from scratch with my own hands. And I put them up in the pecan orchards, and about 3 or 4 days later I went back to check on the houses to see if any bats had moved in. It was evening and I looked up into the house, and there were these cute little furry bats hanging around in my bat house that I had built. And I was so ecstatic, and then the best part happened. Those bats flew away because it was evening time to go eat. And I looked up again into the house and there were these little, tiny like pink things, furless, pink babies up in the bat house.

Banda:  Oh my goodness.

Lear: And I realized that those mother bats had decided to pick my bat house to give birth to and raise their baby bats, their pups. So, I honestly, I started kind of tearing up and started crying because I was just so, just so moved that the bat houses I built were helping these mother bats raise their babies. And that was one of those solidifying moments in my career that I knew I was on the right path.

Banda: It’s almost like they’re just waiting for that perfect bat house.

Lear: Yeah, it was. It was. I was very surprised. I mean usually bats, it will take, I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression, usually it takes a while for bats to move into bat houses, even a couple of years, but this was just a really high-density area.

Banda: Yeah, I was wondering that one myself because we inherited one that I don’t have the height anywhere in my house to do it.

Lear: Yeah.

Banda: So, I gave it to my sister-in-law, and I was like, I don’t know how. I don’t know how you’re gonna work this, because I don’t know much, but it’s like, yeah, eventually, hopefully, it’ll be of use.

Lear: Yeah, just gotta be patient.

Banda: Although. Yeah. So, so one thing you wish you had known when you first started working just right out of college, something you’d like to share that would help people, you know, maybe in the same situation.

Lear: Yeah, I think conservation, the field of conservation in general, typically involves a lot of the soft skills. You know, we call them soft skills, things like communication, project management skills, those kind of, you know, like even now social media skills, which is like the communication aspects. Um, so I think if I would have loved to have started learning more about those kind of soft skills earlier on in my career, especially nowadays with the Internet, with, with social media being able to communicate your science or your conservation is extremely important for, you know, getting the message out there, for getting funding. Writing grants is a big part of what I do, so I think, yeah, I would just encourage anyone out there who’s getting started to not forget about those skills. Obviously, if you are going to be a conservation biologist, you need the ecology, you know, the conservation courses, the math, the statistics, all those things but definitely start looking into those other skills and strengthening those because they’re immensely helpful.

Banda:  Yes, very much hard. Yeah, attest that one. So how do you maintain a good work life balance or do you?

Lear: It fluctuates. I think. There sometimes when it’s more balanced, other times not so much. But I think, you know, I’m lucky and I know a lot of people in my field feel the same way as that. You know, what I do is my passion. It’s not just a job for me. It’s not just a nine to five and forget about it. This is wat I love doing, and so in a lot of my free time, I will do things like outreach and education and, you know, bat walks or bat talks to kids or adult groups because it’s fun for me. It’s not just a job. So, I think that helps. But it also kind of blurs the line between, you know, work life balance. But yeah, just having some hobbies or just something that you like to do, whether it’s just veg out or go somewhere, you know, with your, with your family or your friends is important no matter what you do. So, I think that’s and again, it fluctuates. It’s not always an even keel, but overall, it works out.

Banda:  So, have there been any challenges you’ve had to overcome, either in work or personal life?

Lear: Yeah.

Banda: Maybe you get to have a way around it for other people.

Lear: Yeah, definitely. I think a lot of the work that I’ve done has been international work outside the United States where I live. And so particularly my PhD work was in Mexico, so I spent several about four summers working, you know, living down in Mexico and that was a challenge for me because I kind of knew Spanish, but not really, you know; you don’t really get to practice much – at least I didn’t in my everyday life. So, that was a big challenge is learning the language, learning the culture and the customs, and being able to do the work in that environment on my own with collaborators of course, but I wasn’t down with a school group or anything like that, it was on my own, so that was definitely a challenge for me. But I think being able to learn a second language, I’m still not, you know, completely fluent, but that has really helped in my career because I still do a lot of work in Mexico with my collaborators that I was working with during my PhD work and new collaborators in Spanish. So yeah, if you’re working abroad, definitely learn the language, if possible; like that’s the least we can do, you know, as researchers in another country. And then it also just makes your life easier, so I would highly encourage that.

Banda:  Good advice. So, since this is a, you know, women in science series, you know, we’d like to highlight some maybe gender struggles that you might have experienced in your career. Have there been any of those experiences you’d like to share?

Lear: Oh yeah, definitely. Working, yeah, working out in some of the rural areas or some of the areas in other countries where I’ve been, you know, as a woman, has definitely posed challenges. There have been times when the group of us, myself and then my field assistants, have been all women. Not every time, but there have been times when, like the three or four of us were all women and then go, yeah, going out into the field, we kind of sometimes get, I’m going to say push back but a little bit of like hesitancy for like. Are you capable of doing this like you’re working out at night by yourself in these remote areas? Like there’s mountain lions around like. That kind of push back about like “should you be out here by yourself without man”, without a man? Is that the implication? And so yeah, that has definitely been something we’ve had to work through. But, you know, we just show that we are capable first of all, and we explain what we’re doing out there. You know, we meet with folks beforehand. We’re not just going out without permission, and we meet with the people that we’re working with locally. So yeah, it’s just, it’s just a challenge, but there’s ways around.

Banda: Yeah, yeah, I know. There’s plenty more struggles, but hopefully knowing that, you know, other people have to go through it might give them a little bit more confidence to, you know, to stand up, stand up to that to that.

Lear: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, just show them. I mean, what you can do exactly. And yeah, and be yourself. And that’s good. Exactly. Yeah.

Banda: Professionally, of course, without ruffling feathers. All right. So, one final question, what advice would you give women, especially young women, wanting to pursue a career such as yours or just sciences in general?

Lear: Yeah, I would say for anyone, no matter who you are, finding a mentor or mentors is immensely helpful through your career. And these mentors can be, you know, formal mentors who are, you know, your undergrad advisor, who you’re officially assigned, right. Somebody that you work with formally or it could be somebody who you’ve met at a conference. Or even if it’s not someone in your field, but just someone to encourage you along the way. They, you know, give you, give you that positive feedback to help you along the way. That has been immensely helpful for me is having those mentors throughout my life to help with different stages of my career. So that, you know, that applies to anyone, and nowadays, there’s lots of resources for women and STEM for girls going into these STEM careers. So, you know there’s platforms or databases of other women’s scientists, you know, out there. So definitely look into those platforms and see if you can reach out to someone. I know it’s always intimidating at least for me to cold call or cold e-mail someone, but the worst they can do is either never get back to you which happens, you know. People get busy or they could say no, like they don’t have time, but that’s the worst that can happen. They’re not gonna be offended that you reach out to them. So yeah, just try to find people to help encourage you along the way, including friends, those informal kind of mentors really, really can help propel you and make you feel confident in your career and you and your choices.

Banda: This kind of advice, I wish more colleges had those kinds of resources. We had a women in science and engineering as ours, and I know – I was a mentor to some of the freshmen coming in. Yeah, it was a great program. And yeah, I wish they all did it.

Lear: Yeah. I know – me, too. But I mean like, like you said, the colleges, they have alumni networks, some of them have, like, official alumni mentoring programs, like my college. So yeah, definitely look into that and take advantage of those programs.

Banda: If not, they can help start one.

Lear: Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Banda:  And help other women out.

Lear: Exactly.

Banda:  So, do you have anything you’d like to add or share?

Lear: Yeah, I think there’s two ends of the coin for me. Like it’s never too early, you know, to get started, and it’s never too late to get started in something. So, if there’s something you’re passionate about, but you’re, you know, you’re in elementary school or middle school and you’re like, “Oh, I really want to learn about that, but I’m just a kid”, you can still do stuff, right? Like I built those four bat houses for my silver award when I was 12. And I mean, they were not great bat houses, looking back like they’re not, you know, but it’s a learning experience you get. You get involved, you start learning. So that’s something I would encourage, no matter, no matter how young you are, start learning, start reading.

Banda: Yeah, that’s amazing.

Lear: You know, there’s a lot of cool social media accounts on like TikTok and Instagram. You know, BCI, we have ours and like to learn bat facts, just like fun bat stuff. So, check out all of that. And then the other side of the coin, if you’re older and you’re thinking about changing careers like, yes, it might be difficult to do that, but it’s not impossible. I’ve had plenty of friends who are older, second career, where they’re in grad school or they’re at university trying to get a degree in, like, biology or zoology as a second career, so it’s never too late to start as well. So those would be my parting words.

Banda: Yeah. That’s great. Yeah. Never, never too late. Never too early. Yeah, then the earlier you do, the sooner you find your niche that you really find your passion through and sooner you can have fun with it.

Lear: Yeah. And try different things, right? Like some people know, like I, you know, I knew very early on that I wanted to work with animals. Like as a kid, I was bouncing around, I wanted to work with wolves and then dolphins and then be an entomologist with insects. And then I wanted to be a vet, right? But I knew animals, and then I realized in college that you could make a whole career of working with just bats. And I was like, “Oh my God, I didn’t know that was possible!”

Banda: Yeah.

Lear: So, I knew that. But I have a lot of friends who, you know, tried many different things until they really settled and found their passion. So, don’t feel like if you haven’t found that yet that you’re doing something wrong, because you’re not . You’re just exploring, you’re finding out what you don’t like, which is just as important as finding out what you do like.

Banda: Yes, yes, it is, because there’s definitely going to be way more of these that you don’t like. This is what you do.

Lear: Yes, 100%. Yeah, yeah. And I will say one last one. One last thing for conservation. You know the field of conservation, it is so broad like there are many, many ways to be involved in the field of conservation. I think the typical idea, the typical vision that we see is, you know, the field biologist. You’re out. You’re dressing in your khakis and your field, your field shirt, and your out collecting data, doing research in the jungle or the desert or wherever. Yes, that’s a huge part of conservation, but that’s only part of it. If you’re not the field type of person, that’s fine. I actually right now don’t do a lot of field work for my job anymore. I’m more working with partners to establish conservation programs, fundraising, writing grants, communicating our work to the public. And all of those things are equally important in, in the field of conservation. We need people who do the field work. We need people who do the statistics. That’s not me. I’m not the statistics person. We need those people. We need the people who communicate, and the science communicators; we need the grant writers. All of these things – we need the artists you know to showcase the beauty of nature and wildlife, so if you’re interested in conservation, but you’re like, “Oh, I don’t like statistics” or “I don’t like doing field work”, that’s okay. You don’t have to. You can still be in the field of conservation.

Banda:  Find what the part you like and run with it.

Lear: Yep, they’re all important.

Banda:  Yes, yes, all the cogs in the wheel, yes, yes.

Lear: Lots of cogs.

Banda: All right. Well, thank you so much for your time, Kristen. I really appreciate you meeting with me, helping to spread your knowledge and advice and all of your experiences.

Lear: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. I always love talking about bats, so thanks for the opportunity.