Wildlife Vocalizations: Gael Sanchez

Wildlife Vocalizations is a collection of short personal perspectives from people in the field of wildlife sciences.

My name is Gael Sanchez, and I am a bisexual Hispanic woman and wildlife biologist. Let me say first that I have lived a very privileged life. Despite this, I have often found over the years that my name and my birth place of New Mexico often cause people to have a very different expectation of what I will look like and who I will be before I get to a job or interview. I, as many other women have probably experienced this, have often found myself working twice as hard as the male technicians and biologists to prove that I too can do the job. I have kept my own sexuality quiet as I’ve worked my way through my career, which many people do not have the privilege of doing. It’s only been in recent years that I have felt established and comfortable enough being my full self in my career. There have been so many steps forward to make this field more open and available to people of differing racial, sexual and financial backgrounds, but we have a whole lot more work to do every day. I want to make this field one that is easier and more accepting for those coming up behind us. We should never expect that because we struggled at any point others should also have to.

Gael Sanchez hikes out to check camera traps on the 1836 Treaty Trust land. Credit: Gael Sanchez

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For questions, please contact Jamila Blake.