Meet a Naturalist: Alyssa Parker, curious by nature

As a child, Alyssa Parker wanted to be a marine biologist. She dreamed of one day working at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. It remained her career aspiration even after starting college, and she began taking classes toward a career in the field.

But a few years into her college education, she realized that something was missing. She enjoyed marine biology and working with animals, but there was a lot of lab work too. The behind-the-scenes part of the job wasn’t as satisfying and left her considering other career possibilities that would allow her to work more closely with people.

A college adviser suggested she consider switching her major to environmental science, which led her to an environmental education class. From that class, a new career aspiration was formed.

“This could be the thing,” Parker said she recalls thinking at the time. “I could teach people about fun stuff in nature for the rest of my life and be happy about it.”

And that’s just what she’s been doing. She’s spent her career as an environmental educator at various places across the country, joining the Forest Preserve District of Will County in 2024. Today, she’s the program coordinator at Plum Creek Nature Center near Beecher.

Having grown up in Chicago, she’s happy to be back home and for the opportunity to work for the Forest Preserve District. Growing up, her mom was a science teacher, and her parents often took Parker and her siblings to local forest preserves and nature centers.

In college, as she transitioned to studying environmental education, she began to enjoy more outdoor pursuits, but she said she still wouldn’t have called herself outdoorsy. That came with time, as she began to realize how much she enjoyed teaching kids outside and all it entailed.

“I think I’ve kind of made the city girl in me more outdoorsy with every job,” she said.

These days, many of her hobbies are what many people would consider outdoorsy — things like hiking, kayaking, camping, birding and spending time at the beach. She’s happy for the opportunity to share some of those hobbies with others through her work, whether that’s leading field trips and public programs or speaking with visitors at the nature center.

For Parker, working as a naturalist is also a chance to broaden her horizons, and she views it as one of the perks of the job.

“I’m a lifelong learner,” she said. “I love learning about new stuff and I love reading, so delving into new topics isn’t something that’s uncomfortable.”

She said it was a revelation for her to realize she doesn’t need to know everything about a topic to present a program about it. “Once I learned that, I didn’t pigeonhole myself into only the subjects I felt I knew the most about and became more comfortable presenting about other subjects,” she said.

Today she appreciates having people attend programs who are knowledgeable about the topic at hand because their knowledge can help grow others’ understanding— including hers. She even enjoys attending programs led by other Forest Preserve interpreters because she said it helps her be better in her own programs. In fact, the camaraderie and supportiveness from fellow employees makes the work all the more rewarding.

“It’s just such a supportive community at the District,” she said. “It’s so refreshing to work with so many folks who are willing to share all the time.”

About a year into her tenure now with the Forest Preserve District, she’s come to love a few preserves in particular and looks forward to spending more time in others. She ranks Goodenow Grove Nature Preserve at the top of her list. It’s her home base for work, so it’s a place that feels familiar and welcoming. She said Raccoon Grove Nature Preserve is a close second, and she also enjoys spending time at McKinley Woods, which is a good place for birding because of its location at the confluence of the Des Plaines, DuPage and Kankakee rivers.

No matter where her work takes her across Will County, Parker said she views it as an opportunity to connect with people in meaningful ways. Sometimes being able to show off the nature center’s animal ambassadors helps people better understand animals they may be afraid of. Other times kids who visit on field trips make connections between the natural world and other things they enjoy in life, sparking new interests and curiosities. Sometimes people might simply enjoy the companionship they find attending a program on a topic they are becoming interested in.

She said why people visit the nature center or attend a program may be different for everyone, but she hopes the outcome is the same, at least in broad strokes.

“Nature makes me really happy as a person, and I love being able to share that with other people and then helping them find what about nature makes them happy,” she said. “That’s what really fills my cup, seeing other people excited about nature.”

About this series: The Forest Preserve's program coordinators, recreation coordinator and interpretive naturalists are among the friendly faces that greet you when you visit any of our visitor centers and preserves. They are the men and women who lead the District's public programs as well as educational and recreational programs held in the preserves and beyond. They are the people who pique your curiosity and answer your queries, and we want you to get to know more about them and what drives them.