Chair of Outreach Committee
Hayley is the Royal Entomological Society’s Chair of Outreach Committee, and Principal Entomologist at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), leading a team of entomologists to provide a diagnostic service to RHS members and carry out research on range of garden invertebrates. In this position at a nation-wide gardening charity and based at Wisley garden which welcomes around 1 million visitors a year, Hayley has had many opportunities to develop knowledge and skills for effective communication, outreach and engagement. Her speciality is developing resources and activities for young people, a skill fortified by twenty years of experience volunteering with Girlguiding UK as a Brownie and Guide leader. In 2022, she combined entomology and guiding roles to create the ‘Incredible Insects’ challenge badge, which has since been completed by more than two thousand young people.
As of 2024, Hayley has been a member of the Royal Entomological Society for 15 years, and a member of the Outreach committee for five, and has seen the Society grow and advance in that time. As an undergraduate, she studied biology – focusing on ecology, conservation and environment, and at PhD delved into entomology by starting with macro-moths, studying their flight ability. As an entomologist for the RHS, Hayley looks at a huge range of insects and other animals that appear in gardens, her current research projects focusing on the agapanthus gall midge and control of slugs and snails in gardens.
