I had been working in the wildlife conservation field for about a decade, mostly in the realm of human-wildlife conflict research and management (what wildlife work isn’t, really?). While working on my PhD, studying beach nesting birds on the U.S. Atlantic Coast, I was awarded a fellowship with the USGS Southeast Climate Adaptation Center. Through that program I became acutely aware of the plight of biodiversity and our planet from global warming and changes in land use. I also worked with colleagues in the program to engage the broader university community and general public in the current state of the science regarding climate science. This experience uniquely qualified me for the direction my career would take: first a position using science to inform National Audubon Society’s advocacy of renewable energy, followed by an offer to become the Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute’s lead scientist for its wind-wildlife research program—the position I hold today. In this role, I investigate pressing questions relevant to decision-makers around wind energy and wildlife mitigation, developing the science around solutions, and informing the public about the benefits to wildlife from renewable energy, the impacts to wildlife, and the tools available to mitigate those impacts.