Jennifer McKay grew up in a small town, York, Maine. She always loved the sciences and wanted to edit documentary films for a living. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in communications with a minor in biology from Marist College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in 2000. McKay spent some time in radio and television production before realizing biology was her passion. 

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McKay taught both life and physical sciences for eight years at a combination of middle school and high school levels. On the side, McKay worked as a naturalist tour guide for a few summers at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, N.H., where she introduced visitors to tidal ecology. In addition to her teaching, McKay spent her off hours and her summers either in the classroom as a student herself or in the field along the Penobscot River and in Acadia National Park working on her thesis researching blood mercury levels in Nelson’s sparrows and its effects on male song (McKay and Maher, 2012). McKay earned her Master of Science degree in biology from the University of Southern Maine in 2010.    

McKay then spent six months in Louisiana working for the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) on field work concerning the survivorship of birds effected by oil spills. She continued her work with BRI for several years, serving in various capacities including data manager, communication and outreach officer, and field biologist. Before joining the Bird Banding Lab, McKay worked with professors from the University of Maine as a field biologist studying environmental pollution by sampling water and dragonfly larvae in Maine and New York as part of a long-term monitoring study assessing the effectiveness of the Clean Air Act.   

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McKay began work at the lab in 2013 as a contractor to do a complete review of more than 80 years of Laysan and Black-footed Albatross banding and recapture data collected throughout the entire Hawaiian Island chain housed in the North American Bird Banding Program database. This work was in preparation for a robust population demographic analysis for each species to be conducted by project partners. Additionally, she reviewed encounter and banding records for the lab while focusing on data review associated with geospatial data filters.  McKay has continued to take on a more expanded role, and in April 2023 she accepted a federal biologist staff position with the Bird Banding Lab. Along with continuing her work on data review for encounters and managing the albatross dataset, she will oversee the Banders Without Borders Initiative while maintaining relations with our sister banding schemes around the world.    

McKay, J.L. and Maher, C.R. Effects of mercury on male song in Nelson's Sparrow (Ammodramus nelsoni). 2012. Ecotoxicology 21 (8): 2391-2397