Dr Emily Massingham
CBCS ECR Representative – Engagement
My three great loves have always been people, nature and music. While my journey might look like a patchwork of interests and curiosities, it’s always been strongly guided by those three principles, and I’ve loved all the steps to get here.
Growing up
Growing up, most of my weekends were spent either camping, often at Inskip Point with my toes and face in a rockpool, or at my grandparents’ farm, hanging with cows and horses, playing in the creek, helping Grandad in the shed or Grandma in the garden. I was often up a tree. I’m hoping my favourite tree stayed loyal and still has the best friend bracelet I tied to its branch when I was five years old. I also come from a very musical family, so music often filled the house.
Image credit: supplied.
Early career dreams
The first thing I wanted to be was a singing doctor – an early attempt to mash together my love of music and helping people. I also loved animals as a kid, and my next dream was to be a marine biologist and work with dolphins. I later tried my hand with work experience at a vet and discovered that blood made me faint. Then I realised working with great apes was a legitimate career. I’d always loved great apes. I was drawn to their eyes, their humanness, and I was equally intrigued by the ape within us. I wanted to move to the rainforest and study them. Seeing Jane Goodall’s approach to caring about people and great apes appealed to me very much.
So, I kept taking a step at a time, trying to figure out how to make a difference for people and nature in the way that felt right for me…
Conservation and music
On the final day to choose my university course in Grade 12, it was a very close tie between becoming a conservation scientist and becoming a music therapist. I ended up choosing and starting conservation (well, ecology), but auditioned for Bachelor of Music on the side – I thought I wouldn’t get in. I got in, and I did it, knowing music would always be a big part of my life so was worth investing a few years in (it’s worth noting that my second-year vocal performance included a little rap). This took me to San Francisco and London and to play at many fun and sometimes questionable/sticky venues.
Dogs and people
I was also a disability support worker and spent four years working as a guide dog trainer and puppy development supervisor. I miss being smothered in puppy kisses on the daily. That time taught me a lot about animal behaviour, human–animal relationships, people living with different challenges, and how much I love and respect dogs. Side note: I’m getting a puppy in a week and I cannot wait.
orangutans at the Ecological Society of Australasia,
Wollongong.
Image credit: Vicki Martin.
Great apes and people
I eventually came back to finish my ecology degree. I still loved great apes, but felt like enough people were already working on great ape conservation and that I should do something with more of a direct benefit to people. Throughout all of this, I did a lot of travel. I volunteered in beautiful places, with animals I loved: monitored orangutans, spent weeks in the forest with elephants, built fences, met wonderful people who shared their homes and their culture with me.
I started my Honours (shout out to Rich Fuller and Ange Dean), looking at how nature experiences shape conservation concern. During that time, Johannes Refisch from the United Nations came to talk at CBCS and I realised exactly what I wanted to be doing. He spoke about how great apes are deeply entangled with big social issues like conflict, poverty and so on. And tackling their conservation requires working with those communities and seeking to improve social outcomes. I realised it covered two of my big loves – nature and people. I was very excited to get started. And I’d just have to do a lot of music on the side.
So, I asked Johannes for a coffee, which led to me moving to Kenya to intern and later work with the United Nations Great Ape Survival Partnership and the Wildlife Unit. That time in Kenya was amazing. Weekends were spent on safari. I met Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, before he passed. I danced to incredible Kenyan music. I worked on exciting great ape conservation projects and worked with lots of countries reporting on their Convention on Biological Diversity commitments. It was a good mix of exciting work and exciting life stuff. I also discovered my deep love of coffee in Kenya.
I finished my PhD, a social ecological evaluation of orangutan conservation, in 2024. I absolutely loved my PhD topic. My supervisory team (Ange Dean, Hugh Possingham, Kerrie Wilson, Erik Meijaard and Truly Santika) played a big part in helping me survive and enjoy the ride.
Today
My current work interests include great ape conservation, human–wildlife conflict and coexistence, involving people in decisions that affect them, social equity and decision science. I work at UQ and also with a US-based great ape conservation organisation called Wildlife Impact. I’m lucky to collaborate with a network of passionate, thoughtful people from all over the world. Honestly, one of my favourite things is sitting down with others who care about the world and having big, philosophical chats about how to make it better.
My three big loves – people, nature, music – have stayed the same. My current work brings the people and nature stuff together in a way that feels really meaningful. I feel lucky to be doing work that matters to me like that. I fit all three into my personal life too, through time with my daughter Olive, music*, time in nature and hanging out with friends and family.
*These days, music mostly looks like me belting out Disney songs with (or at) my daughter.
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