Elaine Evans is a University of Minnesota Extension Educator working on pollinator education and research relating to bee conservation. She completed her MS and PhD in Entomology at the University of Minnesota. Elaine studied declining North American bumble bee populations for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. Her current work focuses on determining the status of bees in MN, monitoring threatened populations of the rusty patched bumble bee, evaluating the impacts of pollinator habitat on bumble bee colony performance and health, documenting pathogen spillover from managed honey bees to bumble bees, and enacting pollinator conservation through education, outreach, and public participation in science. Elaine works with members of the public who want to help bumble bees by joining one of the many regional Bumble Bee Atlases across North America.