Tara N. Keir is a Washington, DC-based artist, conservationist, and creative storyteller dedicated to exploring the human dimensions of wildlife crises around the world. Her work seeks to inspire thoughtful and nuanced conversations about wildlife crime, conservation, and coexistence.

By combining illustration, writing, investigative journalism and mapping in a creative storytelling approach, Tara invites audiences to experience conservation challenges through local perspectives. By stripping away projected morals and assumptions, she encourages viewers to turn the lens inward—examining the roles we all play in shaping conservation outcomes, both in our own communities and across the globe.

Tara’s creative storytelling has been funded, featured, and commissioned by the National Geographic Society and National Geographic Partners, and her writing has appeared in National Geographic and the The Fletcher Security Review. Her conservation-focused artwork has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, including at the Sketch for Survival gallery in London, Tephra ICA Fine Arts Festival, and in various exhibitions for Climate Week in Washington, DC, and her art is supported as a Fellow through the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

She continues to investigate illegal wildlife trade (IWT), working on projects examining the United States’ responsibility as a lead participant in the global IWT, and exploring the relationship between humans, wildlife, and trauma in the context of poaching.