Colleen has spent hundreds of hours watching and walking among bears at Katmai National Park and at McNeil River State Game Sanctuary. She worked for both the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the National Park Service as a biologist, educator, and land manager before moving to Missoula in 2006. Colleen now works as a consulting writer and public process facilitator. Currently, she is working on several projects including developing the U.S. Polar Bear Conservation/Recovery Plan, forecasting impacts to brown bears by the proposed Pebble Mine development in Alaska, and organized the 4th International Human-Bear Conflict Workshop held in Missoula, Mont., March 2012.