Yasmeen Sands began her Forest Service career at the Pacific Northwest Research Station in 1999 as an office automation clerk. She was a teenager, hired through a cooperative education program as she began her bachelor’s degree at the Tacoma Branch of the University of Washington. One of her early duties was preparing a peanut-butter-based bait for field crews to put in live traps for flying squirrels. She graduated in 2003 with a degree in interdisciplinary arts and sciences with an emphasis on mass communication.  

She spent her early career working at both the Olympia and Corvallis Forestry Sciences Laboratories, expanding her network of colleagues and friends throughout the station and developing a deep understanding about the breadth of research underway. She joined the station’s communication group in 2004 under Cindy Miner in what would be her professional home for the next 21 years. She earned her master’s degree in technical communication from the University of Washington in 2009 and became the station’s lead public affairs specialist in 2013.

Her influence on the station’s communications cannot be overstated. Her warm, upbeat personality was just as much a hallmark of her career as her attention to detail and continual push for excellence. She was the voice of station’s social media accounts. She continually looked for better ways to communicate science and connect with those who needed the information. The station’s SciCast Webinar series, Congressional Lunch & Learns, and the communications service request app were all products of Yasmeen’s quest to better serve the station.  

She shepherded countless media requests through the system for scientists, ever cognizant of the importance of these opportunities to scientists’ careers and Forest Service Research and Development. To Yasmeen, this meant always being on call. She was the epitome of tact and gracefully navigated personalities, administrative processes, and tight deadlines with a smile.

She shared her talents with the world through the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. She had a key role in preparing and publishing the 2014 and 2024 editions of IUFRO’s Communicating Forest Science. She also served as the deputy coordinator of IUFRO's Communication and Public Relations Working Party from 2020 to 2024.

Yasmeen was always in the middle of new projects. She had recently added painting with watercolors to her long list of talents. Workwise, she was planning the station’s centennial celebration. She recently facilitated a networking session for the station’s professional and technical staff. This was emblematic of her abilities to connect, nurture and strengthen those around her.  

She will be missed, but her legacy of friendship and excellence lives on.