Willow McNeil

Development Associate

Willow grew up in Berkeley, California, spending the majority of her childhood in redwood forests and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. After moving to North Carolina, her family took annual trips to the Asheville area, where she fell in love with the mountains of WNC. At the age of four, she declared she was going to be a biologist, and eighteen years later she graduated from the University of North Carolina Asheville with a bachelor’s degree in biology. She spent her undergraduate years working as a tutor for UNCA’s Writing Center and researching snakes in the Caribbean. After experiencing firsthand the amazing plant and animal diversity of the Appalachians, she knew it would be difficult to call anywhere else home. Her passions led her to EcoForesters, where she worked as our Social Media Coordinator before coming on full-time as our Development Associate. In her free time, you can find her out on the trails, at the gym, or curled up on the couch with her husband and two cats.