We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Hannah Medd. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Hannah below.

Alright, Hannah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I would like to be remembered as a kind person who was strong and passionate about the oceans, science and leaving the world a little better than I found it. I hope that people think of me and smile, feel inspired to work hard for the right reasons and not value attention for the wrong ones. I hope little girls everywhere know that they can be scientists, too. They can study sharks and wear pretty dresses. I hope the young ladies that have worked with me go on to teach and support the next generation of ocean advocates.

Hannah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I founded and now run a nonprofit called the American Shark Conservancy, or ASC. I was a snowbird growing up as my dad trained racehorses and I eventually showed hunters at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington. But my favorite place was at the beach. I was fascinated by all the natural wonders that lived just under the surface of that sparkly blue water. I was very much afraid of sharks so I learned as much as I could from the few books that were around. I quickly learned that we know basically nothing about these animals and I also learned that I could cultivate a career of studying them, combining an endlessly curious mind with a true love of nature. That led me to my undergraduate degrees from Florida Tech in Melbourne, FL and eventually to graduate school at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Armed with a Master’s degree in Zoology, I came back to the States and worked for various nonprofits. I realized I could develop my own organization, work with the people I respected on the projects that were most important. So I did it. I was terrified and uncertain but I know that I would rather work on growing the impact of ASC for the rest of my life than go back to any other job. For years, we were challenged by obnoxious pre-conceived ideas that women can’t lead, can’t excel in this field, can’t contribute and yet here we are. We are contributing data directly to the people making the decisions on how to protect our sharks. We work with very different and sometimes controversial groups, shark fishermen and shark divers, to create best practices and ways to keep people and sharks safe. We engage the public with various educational programs. I am so proud to look back and see how important it was to stay true to what we believe will make a real difference.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think there is nothing more important than resilience, especially when running a nonprofit. The avenues for stability and then growth are not as clearly marked as they seem to before the for-profit organizations. You have to be incredibly flexible and adaptable, some support requires quick thinking, negotiating, and resilience. Businesses we have approached in the past for support (ones that actually rely on us doing our job to stay in business) have been more reluctant to support us lately, citing pandemic-related policies. We have had to quickly review our funding strategies, change up our approach, get expert-level at digital communications, roll quickly with new trends. It has all been very stressful but it sure does feel good when you get it right!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Our reputation took time to build. In our industry, there are a lot of people with great intentions (nonprofit work is all about your passion, right?), they put something out there without much substance or for all the wrong reasons (i.e. it is more about their ego than the cause/work) and they initially get a lot of attention. Like the type of attention that makes your blood boil because if anyone took a second to look into it deeper, they would see no substance. However, I have had to witness the short/stunted life cycle of people and orgs like this time and time again to realize that no matter how fast it comes, if it is not based on the authentic work you do, it doesn’t last. So, we plugged away and stayed focused on doing research that may not have been super fancy, or appealed to the most people but it was the work that makes the most impact. Staying focused on that has helped our organization gain a solid reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.americansharkconservancy.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asc_sharkstudies/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/americansharkconservancy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/american-shark-conservancy/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sharkstudies
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0ZsEARs_t8QGKJf9PD_usQ

Image Credits
Cassandra Scott Ivan Rutzen