Clarissa Casper

Clarissa Casper grew up in northern Utah with an owl obsession she never grew out of. Now based in Brooktondale, New York, she comes to American Bird Conservancy with experience spanning both newsrooms and the nonprofit world. Most recently, Clarissa was the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s first-ever Rachel Carson Science Journalism Fellow, where she wrote about bird science and conservation for the Lab’s magazine and website. Before that, she worked for The Salt Lake Tribune and Utah Public Radio as a regional news reporter, covering local community and environmental topics, including Utah’s shrinking Great Salt Lake. Clarissa volunteered for three years with the Intermountain West Shorebird Survey at Great Salt Lake, an experience that deepened her love for shorebirds and led her to commit her life to birds and storytelling. Her reporting has taken her to watch mother terns feeding their chicks off the coast of New Hampshire and Lesser Yellowlegs incubating their nests in Anchorage, Alaska. Whales are another lifelong passion of hers. At American Bird Conservancy, Clarissa writes stories that turn ABC’s conservation work into narratives that inform and inspire readers to take action on behalf of birds and the habitats they depend on.