The Excellence in Wildlife Education Award celebrates sustained exemplary teaching and contributions to the improvement of wildlife education
The Wildlife Society has granted its 2025 Excellence in Wildlife Education Award to Leslie Burger for her long career in teaching students of all levels.
The Excellence in Wildlife Education Award honors those who have demonstrated excellence in all areas of education, including teaching, advising, scholarships, program development and leadership.
A professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture at Mississippi State University, Burger has consistently helped launch careers, guide internships and improve understanding among her students.
For more than three decades, Burger has worked with graduate and undergraduate students as well as K-12 students, often teaching special courses designed to promote career success. “Leslie builds ecosystems of curiosity and exploration within her classrooms, and I am always impressed with her thoughtful experiential learning style of teaching, where the students develop critical-thinking and soft skills that are stepping-stones to professional success,” said Andy Kouba, professor and head of Burger’s academic department, in his nomination letter.
Steve Bullard, Mississippi State University’s associate dean in the College of Forest Resources, said in his nomination letter that Burger is “professional, engaged and universally respected—a consummate natural resource professional and exemplary educator who epitomizes the value of this prestigious award.”
Burger called her win an “unexpected honor and privilege,” saying that it was humbling to see the nomination letters. “It was a good reminder that even as an individual, we have the power to make a difference,” she said.
While earlier in her career, Burger preferred fieldwork to teaching, she has grown to find more satisfaction in helping others excel in the field of wildlife conservation.
“In this day of complex, global-scale issues that seem so very large and intractable, I know that individuals can and do make a difference for conservation,” Burger said. “Education is one approach to solving these complex issues. Education is the silent fuel that keeps the conservation engine moving forward. It’s not as sexy as wildlife research, species or habitat recovery, ecosystem restoration or acquisition, and the like, but it is necessary.”
