Jeff Follett has had a different career path to the average wildlife biologist. ‘It’s certainly not been a direct line,’ he says. Born and bred in the US state of Minnesota, he completed a bachelor of science degree there majoring in fisheries and wildlife management. When he graduated, ‘everyone in my course had a hard science degree and wanted to go out and work with wildlife’, but Jeff and his wife took a different path. They joined the Peace Corps, (the American equivalent to Australia’s Volunteers Abroad program) and had a long stretch working overseas on humanitarian programs. They had two years in South America, where Jeff worked with an agricultural organisation, and worked in agroforestry.