It is with great sadness that we share the news that one of our researchers, Kristina Comley Washer, died June 9, 2025, after a three-month battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Kristina was 30 years old. Her fieldwork and scientific research around the world still stands. Birds sing in the trees and prairies, and the ecosystems she loved still thrive.
Kristina’s life was driven by curiosity, compassion, and a passion to protect what many ignore. She knew the work that mattered most should be where the work mattered most: in the tallgrass prairies of the Midwest, in dive tanks collecting water samples, and among the nests of Darwin’s finches on the Galápagos Islands. Her hands were in the dirt, her eyes in the sky.
A Fulbright Fellow in the Galápagos, Kristina worked on one of the most iconic ecological studies in the world, supporting conservation efforts to save Darwin’s finches. Kristina wasn’t just in the field, she empowered others: training volunteers in essential conservation practices and building the capacity of local teams. Her leadership was quiet, but powerful. It was rooted in collaboration and respect for nature and people.
Her dedication to biodiversity took her beyond the Galápagos. On the island of Mauritius, Kristina worked on post-extinction ecology, helping scientists understand the lasting impact of the dodo’s extinction and how to bring balance to fragile ecosystems. These projects weren’t just about the past, they were about hope for the future.
In the U.S., she brought the same commitment to regional wildlife centers, university research labs, and conservation nonprofits. She monitored grassland birds, gathered health data, and mentored new field researchers with a steady hand and an open heart. She worked at the New England Wildlife Center and the Bald Head Island Conservancy, where her work showed that conservation must begin at home as well as abroad.
Kristina was also dedicated to environmental justice. While studying her master’s in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University, she studied pollution, risk management, and toxic site cleanup – connecting the dots between environmental science and human health. She knew that the health of ecosystems and communities are forever intertwined.
Kristina was more than a scientist, she was a storyteller, an educator, and a friend to the earth. Driven by empathy, she was motivated by the belief that every nest, every habitat, every living thing deserves protection and respect.
Her death is a devastating loss. But her work endures. Her fieldwork, her mentorship, and her environmental advocacy live on through the people she taught, the species she studied, and the policies her work influenced.
To honor Kristina Washer is to continue the work she began: to look closely at the world, to ask hard questions, and to never give up on the possibility of restoration.
