Gwen Heistand joined the Audubon Canyon Ranch board of directors after rewiring from her long career as the resident biologist and preserve manager at Martin Griffin Preserve, where she lived and worked since 2002. Her love of marine biology, especially wee things that live in water, propelled her out of the business world and back to graduate school. Gwen’s heart has expanded to embrace our terrestrial neighbors as well … including a severe crush on spiders (the subject of most of her childhood nightmares). Gwen has a master’s degree in environmental science & management / applied ecology from UC Santa Barbara. Her graduate work focused on cumulative impact assessment in coastal wetland watersheds.