Kersey Lawrence
Dr. Kersey Lawrence is a wildlife ecologist and an award-winning university-level teacher who spends half the year in Africa and the other half in the USA. Her Ph.D. research focused on trackers and tracking in Southern Africa. She is the owner of Original Wisdom, an experiential education company where she develops and runs courses for students and groups in the United States and South Africa. Original Wisdom courses emphasize science through “hands-on” ecology sessions outdoors; technology through the use of photography, camera traps, GPS, and GIS; and human dimensions through cultural experiences with local communities. With well over two decades of survival, wilderness and tracking experience she is also a highly qualified tracker in her own right, within both the USA and South Africa. She is, in fact, amongst the most highly qualified trackers in the world in the CyberTracker System and is currently the first and only woman tracker in the world to earn a Senior Tracker qualification (since 2016), which required her to achieve a Track & Sign Specialist (2011, South Africa) and a Trailing Specialist qualification (2016, USA). Kersey is a Track & Sign Evaluator in Africa where she has been assessing trackers since 2014, and a Trailing Evaluator in North America since 2018. She is a qualified guide on the FGASA (the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa) standard with many hours on foot and wildlife encounters under her belt. Kersey has worked for a part of each year in Africa since 2008, which is when her love affair with the African bush began.
From Kersey:
I am an aspiring minimalist and believe in self-sufficiency and learning the “Old Ways” that people used to live by. The name of this site, Original Wisdom, is a play on those words, with symbolism derived by combining the original “old” wisdoms of our human ancestors with the original “new” wisdoms that we have available in the modern world. An example of that is combining knowledge of animal tracking with camera-trap placement to get the best wildlife photos on a reliable basis that will be useful in research and management. This wisdom is taken further by using those photos to inspire people to be more observant in their own place. Observation creates questions; following up on questions creates knowledge; knowledge creates understanding; understanding creates compassion – and the earth could use some more compassionate people, especially in regard to the “wise-use” of nature.
Professionally, my academic training comes from The University of Connecticut (UCONN), where I am an award-winning teacher and a Ph.D. graduate. I worked as a lecturer in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, and in faculty development for the Institute for Teaching and Learning. Outside the University, I’ve also been involved in program development and instruction that combines my two loves of nature and education, in the following forms: home-school, un-school, after-school, adult-ed, mixed-age-group, and traditional pre-k through 12. Because I can not resist the pull of tracking, I also do consulting projects that include track-based surveys.
My Ph.D. research was based in South Africa, where I spend several month of every year. It should come as no surprise that I study trackers. My research includes an in-depth quantitative and qualitative analysis of trackers evaluated by and certified through CyberTracker Conservation’s Tracker Certification System. The research goals were to: 1) review how track-based data is being collected for scientific research, and provide guidelines for reporting the skill level of trackers in future research, 2) test the reliability of the system for evaluating trackers’ skills, 3) provide guidelines for determining when an expert tracker is needed to collect track-based data, 4) to examine the human dimensions around what it takes to become an expert tracker, and 5) determine whether or not the modernization of an indigenous tracking is resulting in a net loss of traditional ecological knowledge.
Click here for links to Kersey’s research.
More recently, I published The Tracker Mentoring Manual with Lee Gutteridge. The manual uses Southern African examples but can be used by anyone, anywhere in the world, to develop good tracking habits that will lead to expertise over time. The manual is stand alone, but can also be used in conjunction with the first of our correspondence and online tracking courses at TrackerMentoring.com, where students can become part of a worldwide network of peers embarking on the same journey.
Click here to view Kersey’s Resume.
“In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we have been taught.”
― Baba Dioum
Just came across this site Kersey. You are, as always, an inspiration. What you have done with tracking is amazing and I feel blessed to have worked with you and call you a friend.
Andy