From Academia to Advocacy

Emily Hutcheson, BCI’s 2025 EarthShare Green Leaders fellow, investigates community partnerships in San Antonio

By Stefanie Waldek

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n 2025, EarthShare Texas selected Bat Conservation International (BCI) to join this year’s EarthShare Green Leaders Fellowship cohort, which connects emerging environmental leaders with nonprofit organizations.

Through the program, funded by Texas-based supermarket chain H-E-B, BCI welcomed Emily Hutcheson to the team. Hutcheson saw the Green Leaders fellowship as the perfect fit during a pivotal moment in her career.

Outdoor photograph close-up view of Emily Hutcheson, a smiling woman holding a sign that reads, The Green Leaders Fellowship 2025 Cohort is supported by: Our Texas Our Future H-E-B, EarthShare Texas; The sign mentions a $157,000 grant for workforce development; She is standing outdoors in a hilly, green landscape area filled with green lush trees, boulder rocks, and a large cave entrance behind her at Bracken Cave; A slight partial cropped view of a random man and a few other individuals are situated seated down on a concrete bench to the left of Emily as the random man is taking a photo of the Bracken Cave's topography outdoor nature surroundings; In the sky, a large swarm of bats is visible, flying out of the cave

Emily Hutcheson at Bracken Cave

Photo: Kali Miller

“I became a mom during graduate school and wanted to transition out of academia and into environmental work,” she says. “The EarthShare Green Leaders program is welcoming to career-transitioning folks and working parents, so it felt doubly suited to my current position.”

We sat down with Hutcheson to chat about her career journey and experience as BCI’s EarthShare Green Leaders Fellow.

How did you become interested in environmental and conservation work?

I am happiest outdoors. I grew up in Florida and Singapore and was around the water a lot, so I went to college wanting to be a marine biologist. But after a few twists and turns, I ended up getting a Ph.D. in the history of science, technology, and medicine. I focused on the history of biology—that is, ecology and evolutionary biology—and environmental history. I gained a deep and broad understanding of why we know what we know about the natural world and the attendant issues related to the production of knowledge in our culture. I am trying to apply the “think globally, act locally” call to action for environmental issues.

What was your main project with BCI as the EarthShare Green Fellow?

The Networks and Partnerships Team at BCI hired me to help evaluate their community outreach efforts in San Antonio. Prompted by interruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, BCI initiated a new community engagement strategy in Central Texas in 2021. The strategy centers on collaboration and has two main outcome-based goals: to increase the number of people who self-identify as environmental stewards, and to increase the number of people who are aware of BCI and the important role bats play in our ecosystems.

My role was to evaluate how this strategy is going. I interviewed BCI’s partner organizations to assess the health of their collaborations, then applied an impact model for partnership evaluations and compiled all the data into a report. Ultimately, BCI will be able to use the report to see how this strategy works for them and their partners and decide how to continue this work in other areas of the country to help bats and people.

Before working with BCI, did you have any interest in bats?

I am an animal person in general and will travel to see any cool animal-related thing. My mom has been a member and supporter of BCI, and we have been going to Bracken Cave Preserve to see the bats emerge since we both moved to San Antonio during COVID. It’s truly amazing to witness every time. So I knew about Texas bats, but during my fellowship, I learned a lot about the diversity of bats all over the world.