Rea Manderino is ecologist and collections specialist at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. Originally from El Dorado, Kansas, she has gradually moved east over the decades, receiving a BA in ecology from the University of Chicago and living briefly in St. Louis, Missouri, before settling in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Manderino received her MS in environmental science from the University of Virginia and worked with the Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory and NOVA Parks. She then moved to Maryland briefly to work at the Port of Baltimore for USDA-APHIS. She ultimately returned to ecological research, completing her PhD in entomology at SUNY-College of Environmental Science and Forestry.