We had the good fortune of connecting with Caroline Efstathion and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Caroline, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Starting my own non-profit organization was never anything I thought I would do. After I graduated with my PhD, I started a full-time teaching job at a college that did not have a research component. I had worked hard over the last 10 years to establish relationships and collaborations with many scientists in several countries. I had a lot of projects that I wanted to continue working on, but I didn’t have an avenue to do that. So, one day I had the idea, but quickly dismissed it as something I could never actually do. But, after a few weeks of thinking about it, I just decided to do it! I had no idea what I was doing or if it would work but figured why not try. I purchased a how to book and one form at a time, I got it started!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Someone once described me as a person who always finds themselves in a box, but that I chip away at that box until I make it a circle. My passion and my career went in different directions. I knew as soon as I graduated that I did not want to play the academic game. To continue my own research and not be at an academic institution was going to be challenging. Fortunetly, my professional career is in entomology and my research is entomology based. Therefore, I have leveraged the relationships I developed in my professional career to advance my non-profit research goals. For example, I have many university professors that are research associates with my non-profit and serve as co project investigators. They have access to students, funding, labs and equipment that I do not, so these types of collaborations are vital. When I attend work conferences, I represent the company I work for, but I also use these meetings to connect with colleagues and company representatives to discuss my non-profit. This is really the main way that I have been able to develop collaborations with other researchers and get support from companies for products and funding. One thing E.O. Wilson said in his book, Letters to a Young Scientist, was “Put the project first and, by any available and honorable means, complete and publish the results.” This is what I try to do with every project, which usually means working outside the box and being creative.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Dr. Jancie Boyd never hesitated to support and believed in me, even when everyone else said I couldn’t do what I wanted, which was work in the field of parrot conservation. She gave me my first shot, by funding my first small research project in Brazil, through The Parrot Fund (her non-profit). She also guided me through the complex political world of parrot research and always had my back. She truly set me done the path to where I am today. Thank you, Dr. Boyd, I will keep your passion alive, rest in peace.

Website: https://avianpec.org

Facebook: Avian Preservation and Education Conservancy

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