Also, I’m a park ranger & educator.

In fact, that’s me with a Eurasian eagle-owl in a National Park Service standard-issue Smokey Bear hat during a Junior Ranger program about birds.

So, a little about me. I’m a Jackson Wild and Webby Award-winning filmmaker, journalist, and public programs producer with over a decade of experience. I create videos, produce live events, write stories, take photos, and design infographics. I’ve made stuff for PBS (like NATURE on PBS and PBS Digital Studios), Popular Science (where I was the Head of Video, Editorial & Branded), and The Field Museum (where I documented scientists in the field and lab for a YouTube channel called The Brain Scoop). Making films is how my reflection ended up in one of the most perfectly round objects on planet Earth—a silicon sphere used to redefine how we measure things in the universe. But, that’s not all I do.

‘RANGER TOM’ & TEACHING FILMMAKING

I was a National Park ranger at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge along the coast in Queens, New York. I taught kids about urban ecology, protected endangered piping plovers, and kayaked radioactive waterways (NYC baybee!). After hanging up my hat, I developed and taught a graduate STEM science communication course at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte through a National Science Foundation grant, giving researchers the tools to turn data into visual media. For the past couple of years, I’ve guest-lectured on science filmmaking at NYU.

WHAT I’M WORKING ON LATELY

Recently, I made a short film about organic chemistry, playing the piano, and how to turn a tree into a drug for the Dreyfus Foundation's Chemistry Shorts project. For the Wildlife Conservation Society, I produced a series of vertical Instagram Reels highlighting global and local conservation efforts. Also, I curated and produced two live variety shows at the Museum of the Moving Image exploring the intersection of science and cinema with scientists, filmmakers, and writers on stage.

Currently, I produce science public programs at Pioneer Works—an artist and scientist-led cultural center in Brooklyn—programming events on tree consciousness, synthetic blood, and a deep-dive conversation with legendary sci-fi author Kim Stanley Robinson.

Drop me a line at thomas.r.mcnamara@gmail.com and say hello. I’m available to direct, edit, and shoot, as well as produce live events, consult, and teach. Click on work with me to learn more about collaborating and my camera package.