Celida Moran

Conservation Educator

As a STRAW (Students and Teachers Restoring A Watershed) Program Conservation Educator, I support the delivery of science curriculum to K-12 students through a combination of in-class lessons and on-site wetland and riparian restoration projects to help them and their teachers affect positive change in their local community throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

I first started with STRAW as a Restoration and Education Technician with the South Bay branch of program from July 2020 to July 2022 through Point Blue’s partnership with the Roger Arliner Young (RAY) Diversity Fellowship Program. I supported the planting and maintenance of native California plant species along creeks and wetland areas across the unceded ancestral homelands of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples, Muwekma Ohlone Tribe, Tamien Nation, and Amah Mutsun Tribal Band.

Born and raised in San Francisco, CA (Ramaytush Ohlone land) my passion for environmental science began as I grew up in urban open spaces like Golden Gate Park and Fort Funston State Park. Seeing the variety of ways that people of different religions, ethnicities, and cultures drew joy from the natural world around them prompted me to graduate from Western Washington University with a B.S. in Environmental Science and Geographic Information Science.

I aim to use my past experiences and teachings from my mentors – Dr. Anna Lees, Dr. Dolores Calderon, and Dr. Verónica Véléz – to support community-led habitat restoration projects in the Bay Area through the lenses of critical race theory and land education. The privilege of working with Dr. Marco Hatch and his Coastal Communities and Ecology Lab, where I first began to learn about Indigenous ways of knowing, Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and the importance of land-based, community-centered environmental research, also guides the work I do now. My time with the Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program at the University of Washington introduced me to some of my most amazing friends and mentors that expanded my thinking around environmental justice and the connection between identity and access to recreation and resources.

I honor my ancestors, parents, tías, mentors, and friends that have helped me get to where I am today. When not working, I love to spend one on one time with loved ones, reading, hiking, eating, experimentally cooking, and exploring new places. My pronouns are she/her/hers.

Feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile for more.