As a conservation professional since 1999, Rickie White (M.A. Ecology, UNC-Chapel Hill) has conducted and overseen comprehensive species inventories and vegetation maps for the National Park Service, consulted on sustainable forest strategies for the forestry industry, established successful citizen science programs within communities, and served in leadership positions in multiple national and local conservation nonprofits. In addition to serving as Senior Regional Ecologist and Senior Project Manager at NatureServe for close to 20 years, his career includes stints as Citizen Science Coordinator for the National Audubon Society's Chicago office, Executive Director of the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association in Durham, NC, and principal for Lost Province Ecological LLC.

Rickie currently works from his home base in the northwestern mountains of North Carolina near the Virginia border, where he enjoys leading hikes of rare ecosystems including The Nature Conservancy’s Bluff Mountain, tending his flock of Navajo-churro sheep and his flower farm, and traveling to experience new cultures, ecosystems, and species.