Habitat & Conservation  |  08/02/2022

Education and Outreach Staff Growing in the Southeast


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Audrey Hawk (left) and Melanee Berlin (right).

Melanee Berlin and Audrey Hawk have been hired as our new Habitat Partner Specialist and Education and Outreach Coordinator, respectively.

By Andy Edwards, Quail Forever Program Manager

We are excited to announce that two new team members are joining the Quail Forever ranks in the Southeast. Support from our friends at Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Working Lands for Wildlife (WLFW) Framework, the Williams Family Foundation of Thomasville, GA, and our great network of chapter and state agencies, made these positions possible. Melanee Berlin and Audrey Hawk have been hired as our new Habitat Partner Specialist and Education and Outreach Coordinator, respectively. Both started in May.

Melanee Berlin will serve QF from the Carolinas and will take on various roles as our Habitat Partner Specialist. In this role she will consolidate the accomplishments of our biologist staff on the landscape and help us to tell the story of our efforts to our partners, members, and those interested in upland wildlife habitat conservation. She will have the opportunity to develop educational and marketing materials, newsletters, and other avenues for the public to access information about the incredible work that Quail Forever is accomplishing.

Berlin grew up hunting with her father and uncle, and that experience fostered a passion for environmental conservation and education. Upon discovering that there were careers in this field, she pursued an undergraduate and graduate degrees, earning her master’s degree in Biological Sciences from Miami University with a focus on wildlife conservation and education. Melanee is excited to take what she’s learned in her previous experiences and put them to work telling the great story of the impact QF is having in the Southeast.

Audrey Hawk joins the team to serve as Quail Forever’s Georgia and Florida Education and Outreach Coordinator. Audrey will encourage habitat education, growing an informed public who supports upland wildlife, supply conservation leadership to cultivate generations of engaged leaders, and capture the hunting heritage of the southeast through recruiting, developing and reactivating hunter conservationists.

Audrey’s experience with hunting and conservation has been lifelong, as her family instilled a love for the outdoors, gun safety, and sportsmanship in her at an early age. For the last six years she has hunted wild pheasant and quail in Oklahoma and is eager to bring her excited spirit for the Call to the Uplands to Southeast communities. Audrey’s background in 4-H, FFA, agricultural education, outdoor learning, and community development has prepared her to serve the chapters and potential members of Quail Forever in Georgia and Florida.

Both Melanee and Audrey’s responsibilities will include working with Quail Forever chapters, staff members, and partners to deliver Quail Forever’s national Education and Outreach programing (Learn-to-Hunt Events, Pollinator Outreach Events, WLFW landowner field days, and Women on the Wing Events). For more information about partnering with Quail Forever’s efforts in the Southeast, contact Melanee at mberlin@quailforever.org or Audrey at ahawk@ quailforever.org.


Andy Edwards is a Quail Forever Program Manager.

This story originally appeared in the 2022 Summer Issue of the Quail Forever Journal. If you enjoyed it and would like to be the first to read more great upland content like this, become a member today!