Esther Sumner

Esther Sumner has volunteered with Sageland Collaborative since the twice-annual Intermountain West Shorebird Surveys began in 2022. In 2025, she was recognized as Sageland's Great Salt Lake and Shorebirds Volunteer of the Year.

Professionally, Esther has spent more than 10 years at Adobe, where she works as a senior product manager in Analytics. Her work centers on understanding complex problems involving people and technology: gathering information from multiple sources, identifying patterns, understanding different perspectives, and working with customers, engineering, and design teams to build solutions that work. She brings that same curiosity and systems-oriented thinking to conservation.

Esther holds a BA in journalism from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and has a lifelong love of writing and photography. Her wildlife photography has been used by the National Audubon Society, Audubon Delta-Mississippi, and other conservation organizations. An avid birder, she credits birding with expanding her appreciation of Utah—from the mountains where she and her husband have spent years mountain biking to the state's wetlands, deserts, and other lowland landscapes. She can often be found exploring Utah with binoculars and a camera.