Jess Ahearn
Media Producer/Editor
Expertise
Educational Media • Video Production & Post-Production • Online Learning
I became interested in educational media while teaching video production to science instructors on a field course in Costa Rica. I have since focused my career in online learning, drawing on my background in film and journalism to produce creative factual content. As I learned more about natural history around the world through my own educational experiences—studying ecology in New Zealand, sustainable agriculture in Italy, and marine biology in California—I returned home with a renewed appreciation for the deciduous forests of my native Massachusetts. I hope that my videos inspire learners to get out in their local ecosystem, wherever that may be!
At the Cornell Lab, I collaborate with expert instructors and course developers to create educational videos about science and nature as part of Bird Academy, the Lab’s online learning initiative.
Education
B.A., Cinematic Arts, University of Southern California
Favorite Bird
I am fascinated by (and worried about) the critically endangered Kākāpō, New Zealand’s flightless, nocturnal parrot with a convoluted breeding system involving bowls and booms, and only occurring in years of adequate fruiting of a particular species of tree.
