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Kayla Cranston, Ph.D. is the Director of Co-Design Science & Innovation at Antioch University New England. In this position, Kayla leads the design and administration of a suite of professional development services to strengthen the capacity of conservation professionals to effectively integrate Conservation Psychology into their daily work.  Previous to this post, Kayla worked at Saint Louis Zoo as Conservation Education Researcher where she led evaluation of K-12 environmental education programs and designed and managed a co-design project that strengthened the capacity of the zoo to co-develop zoo programming with (not for) the community of North St. Louis County. Her research brings a psychological perspective to development of strategy and evaluation metrics that aim to conserve wildlife conservation while also fostering the well-being of human community members who are directly affected by wildlife conservation projects.

Kayla has shared her expertise in co-design and conservation psychology by teaching the topic to students and professionals at Antioch University New England, Oregon State University, Miami University and currently online at University of California San Diego Extension. She created and currently leads a coaching service to strengthen the capacity of environmental professionals at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Roger Williams Park Zoo, Zoo New England, US Fisheries & Wildlife, and World Wildlife Fund to apply psychological principles and tools to strengthen and evaluate conservation and community engagement programs with her co-design approach. You can read about her approach to co-designing conservation programming with (not for) communities in her article on the topic that she co-authored in the special issue she co-edited in Zoo Biology.