Syd Conklin
Facilities and Grounds Steward
Team Member Since 2025
Syd (she/her) grew up in northeast Tennessee an indoor kid, drawing and daydreaming. Shy, she kept company with her pets and the characters she drew. From 2012 to 2016 she attended Savannah College of Art and Design and earned a Sequential Art degree, which is a fancy way of saying a degree in drawing comics. From 2013 to 2019, she worked various food service jobs while building an art career on the side. In 2020, COVID forced her employer to lay off nearly 300 employees (including Syd) and she took the leap into freelance illustration full time.
This huge change came with more free time, which Syd used to pursue her other lifelong passion. Since 2021, she has been volunteering as a trainer and caregiver with animal shelters, wolf and wolfdog sanctuaries, and finally Reflection Riding’s wildlife department. Through her four years as a volunteer with Reflection, her experience grew from just canids to include raptors and the other native wildlife housed at Reflection.
All that time spent outdoors with the animals taught this indoor kid that our wild places were to be treasured and protected. When not drawing her illustration clients’ families, pets, and D&D characters or working to keep Reflection’s facilities and grounds in top shape, Syd can be found competing in dog sports with her two crazy heelers.