Staff Spotlight: Avery Adam, Operations Director
By Lily Gordon, Program Coordinator
In January, Avery Adam will hit her one-year work anniversary as Nature Linc’s Operations Director. Avery was drawn to work at Nature Linc because our mission of connecting youth to nature “just made sense” to her, having always valued nature in her own life and introducing her kids to it very young. Before FNL, Avery worked in the environmental field for many years, everything from working as the Executive Director at the New Hampshire 4H Foundation to teaching at a local farm school. In the past ten months, she’s become a core part of the administrative team at Nature Linc, working to create better systems for all the internal things needed to support FNL’s meaningful youth work. She loves seeing the result of her work she supports when she gets to observe programs in action. In Avery’s spare time, she’s a wildlife rehabilitator, rescuing injured or orphaned animals and nursing them back to health.
Since she was hired as FNL’s Operations Director, Avery’s been working hard on systemizing everything in the “back of the house:” creating a better payroll system, working closely with Brandon Tolentino-Serrano on a new Logic Model, and researching new grant opportunities, to name just a few of her various endeavors. Avery loves the variety of the job, knowing that she can expect the unexpected every single day- it never gets boring. One of her favorite moments from the past year was the first time she saw our programs in action, during February break field trips. She recalls seeing the joy and excitement on kids’ faces as they tried sledding and snowshoeing for the first time.
In between creating spreadsheets, Avery can be counted on to regale her coworkers with stories and pictures of the baby raccoons, possums, and squirrels staying in her garage. She became a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in 2021, remembering fond childhood moments of taking care of raccoons with her father, who was also a wildlife rehab-er. Initially, it was a way to get through the tedium of the pandemic and bond with her since. Since, it’s become a passion and large time commitment- Avery said she “didn’t totally know what she was getting into,” but she loves it. Each animal, she says, has a very unique personality, and she loves getting to know each of their quirks.
A memorable moment that sticks out to Avery is the first time she got a call to pick up animals. It was the Friday of the Fourth of July weekend, and someone called about four abandoned baby skunks. Avery patiently fought her way through holiday traffic all the way up through the North Shore, then loaded her car with the tiny skunks that could fit in the palm of her hand. Needless to say, her car was smelly for a while after that. She didn’t get sprayed as often as you’d think, though. Avery explained that skunks take about 10 days to “recharge” their spray, so they are conservative with it. You can tell if they’re about to spray because they’ll start stomping angrily at you. However, they can only spray when their tail is free to move, so when Avery saw the tiny skunks stomping, she’d simply pick them up and tuck the tail!
Whether she’s figuring out how to take care of baby skunks or troubleshooting payroll, Avery approaches things with a determined, problem-solving mindset. We are so happy to have Avery on our team to support everything running smoothly!
