In this installment of Field Notes, we chat with PhD student Martha Bierut. Martha completed her MSc in Conservation Leadership at Colorado State University in 2019, and she is currently a PhD student and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in Dr. Jon Salerno and Dr. Jen Solomon’s labs in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources department. As a conservation social scientist, Martha’s research explores elephant management and polycentric governance. In our interview, we talk about how she found her way to social science, the importance of collaborative research, and more.