Jessica Hadley

Jessica Hadley

Jessica Hadley is a freelance wildlife photojournalist and bear specialist working in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE).  As a storyteller, her work focuses on human-wildlife interactions, mainly in National Parks. She started working with bears as a wildlife technician for the Yosemite Bear Management program in 2014 and has spent the last ten years working with wildlife in California and the GYE.  Working in National Parks inspired her to turn her lens towards the challenges park biologists face managing wildlife as park visitation increases. Her goal is to document how our actions, while visiting wild places, affect the lives of the animals we encounter . A majority of her work as a wildlife professional for the federal government has been focused on bears.  You can download Jessica's resume here.

Awards & Publications

In early 2017 Jessica was one of 12 students to receive the North American Nature Photography Association College Scholarship. From this she received a NANPA membership and was given the opportunity to work on a multimedia project with fellow scholarship winners under the guidance of talented mentors. They presented the work at the NANPA Summit in Jacksonville Florida on March 4, 2017.

Jessica is a 2023 Vital Impacts Mentorship recipient and a 2024 Girls Who Click Ambassador.

Jessica has published images in the Yellowstone Bear Project Annual Report 2019, Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Investigations 2020 Annual Report of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team (Page 40), the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team Research and Monitoring Summary 2022, and the International Bear News Summer 2023 Vol. 32 no. 2.