Danni Washington

Danni's Story

Daniell 'Danni' Washington is an amazing young woman from Miami, FL.  She has been following her heart for many years spreading the message of ocean conservation. Her expectations for herself and those around her have always been high. A recent University of Miami Graduate (Double Major in Marine Science and Biology) and world traveler (South Africa, Galapagos Islands, Peru, Costa Rica & more), Danni has dedicated her studies, her free time and her creative energies to become a spokesperson for the ocean.  Her love and passion for nature was ignited at six years old and has continued to be a major driving force in her life today.  Throughout her time at the University of Miami, Danni served as a team leader in the South Florida Student Shark Program (SFSSP) which is a collaborative, multidisciplinary research and education program geared toward encouraging high school, college undergraduate and graduate students to learn about the study and conservation of Floridian shark species, mangrove fish habitat and the Florida watershed.  In addition, she served on the executive board of the UM Marine Mammal Stranding Team that actively participated in the rescue, rehabilitation and release of marine mammals that stranded along the coastline of South Florida.  Her ceaseless adoration for learning and exploration has helped provide her with incredible opportunities to experience the natural world at its best.

In August of 2008, Danni entered the ROXY 'Follow Your Heart' competition presented by Schick® Quattro for Women® a contest driven by the 'Follow Your Heart Tour' a 12-location tour intended to inspire girls to go after their dreams.  Little did she know that she would melt the hearts and impact the panel of judges to the tune of $10,00.00 - enabling her to follow her heart!   "I am the 'Green Marine spokesperson' for getting the word out about preserving our precious resource. The ocean is so vast, so beautiful and so mysterious – but many people don't realize how much our lives depend on it. Our society as a whole needs to change its perspective. I want to focus on the children. They are the ones that will really make the change." This unbelievable blessing has opened some excellent doors for her to reach out to youth including the opportunity to be the newest member of the Wild Classroom team.  Furthermore, Danni has created 'The Big Blue & You Foundation' which a non-profit organization that aims to inspire and empower today's youth to become ambassadors of the Ocean and Earth (www.thebigblueandyou.com). 

Danni hopes to use her knowledge, outgoing personality and love for our blue planet to motivate youth around the world to become stewards of our environment and encourage them to initiate change toward a brighter future by becoming leaders of tomorrow.

A short video about Danni

Meet the other faces of Untamed Science

Rob Nelson Rob is the executive producer and principal director for Untamed Science and works to coordinate the podcasting efforts, world biomes site, flowering plant families pages, fish pages and the invasive plants of the US. He also stars as an oncamera personality in many of the episodes of the new highschool, middle grades and elementary BioAdventures DVDs that are being produced with Pearson Publishing... more on Rob

Jonas Stenstrom: Jonas coordinates our current educational outreach efforts overseas. He coordinates the Expeditions pages, Biodiversity pages, and is the principal producer for the "Mendel" Chapters on genetics. He is the primary Dive Rite Ambassador contact, Save our Seas contact and is actively working to help promote Ocean Awareness with the Untamed Science team ... more on Jonas

Hazen Audel:Hazen is a native of Eastern Washington. He is an avid adventurer and currently works as a biology teacher and artist. Hazen is one of our oncamera host for the ecogeeks. He is also the star of the Mushrooms chapter video that will premiere with the BioAdventures Video Series that is coming out in the new Macaw books with Pearson Publishing ... more about Hazen

Suze Roots: Suze is a plant biologist. She recently completed a master's degree
studying tropical woody vines (lianas) in Costa Rica and Panama through
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Suze is also one of our writers,
working to make the content scientifically accurate and fun for both
students and teachers.  Suze is the star of several of the new
BioAdvenures Videos and Chemistry series ... more about Suze

Danni Washington Danni is our Floridian crew contact and one of the most enthusiastic individuals most of us have ever met. Danni studied marine biology at the Universit of Miami. She is currently working to promote ocean awareness through her own inititative known as The Big Blue and You! She stars in several of the highschool middle grade and elementary BioAdventure videos ... more on Danni

Haley Chamberlain Haley studied Bryophytes (mosses) in South Carolina. She also studied and worked as an actor in Minnesota. She is the series producer for our elementary series with Pearson Publishing. As an ecogeek Haley is passionate about finding creative and entertaining ways to tell our science stories. One of her new passions is directing the music program. As a host she works educating youth through both her on camera presence and her in school appearences more on Haley

Untamed Science Trailer

To give you a brief taste of how the crew is trying to make science fun, we've compiled a few outtakes from our the new high school biology series that is being published with Pearson Publishing

Other Untamed Science Crew and Staff

The on-camera faces of Untamed Science are only a few of the many people that have made this site a success. We'd also like to note a few of the other key players on the team.

• Dan Bertalan - Producer/Marketing Specialist/Business Coordinator
• Jaime Jelenchick - Producer
• Matt Browning - Editor / Post-Production Supervisor
• Ed Watkins - Producer/Post-Production Coordinator
• Keren Albala - Animator
• Spencer Britton - Animator
• Jon Lemerond - Animator
• Mike Colarik - Animator
• Derek Perkowski - Animator
• Monica Pinzon - Camera-person