Maggie Nichols

Maggie grew up playing in the outdoors. She spent her childhood riding her bike down deserted highways in the Midwest and summers paddling and sailing local lakes and rivers. After spending her formative years attending and working for a summer camp, she headed off to Iowa State University. There she completed a BS degree in Biology and earned a Master's degree studying chimpanzee behavior. While designing and carrying out biological field experiments she also led backcountry trips for the ISU Outdoor Recreation Program. She honed her outdoor skills while learning the value of having the right equipment in the field. She then spent almost a decade as an educator both in the classroom and abroad, teaching science and outdoor skills in far-flung places like the Galapagos, South Africa, the Ecuadorian Amazon, and several Caribbean islands as well as across the continental US. After spending several years managing backcountry youth programs in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Maggie now lives in Reno, Nevada where she puts her experience designing rigorous scientific tests and passion for having the right tool for the job to good use. She has been testing and writing for GearLab since 2017.