Meet Ava, A-1 Great American Alligator Museum docent and qualified reptile enthusiast. Get to know her and her journey to working at New Orleans’ most intriguing Magazine Street museum in this insightful and personal exposé. In sharing her story, she reveals why reptiles are amazing, what’s so special about life and work in New Orleans’ Lower Garden District and her favorite gator fact.
Read on for a personal glimpse inside the Gator Museum and visit us in New Orleans to learn more about these amazing animals!
Interview conducted at the Great American Alligator Musuem in August 2026. 
Hi, my name is Ava. I'm 22, and I work at the Alligator Museum.
Q: Where are you from originally?
A: I was born right here in New Orleans, Louisiana, but moved shortly after Hurricane Katrina to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I grew up and went to school.
Q: What attracted you to the Garden District?
A: I grew up in the Garden District, so it’s just where I like to hang out already.
Q: Right on. What made you want to work for the Alligator Museum?
A: I came in here four times just because I really like this place, and Miette across the street. So I came in for the fourth time. They needed extra hands, and now I'm here.
Q: What's your favorite part of the job?
A: Just talking about alligators and hearing people's love for reptiles and their love for the city in general.
Q: What is your favorite thing about alligators?
A: Ooh, probably the scutes on their back. Just having that hard-plated armor between your skin, it's like the coolest kind of piercing you could have.
Q: Very interesting indeed. So you're also into other reptiles as well, is that right?
A: Yes. I have three crested geckos at home. I had a bearded dragon at one point, and I just have a love for most reptiles. They just have the biggest personalities in such a little body!
Q: Yeah :) Do you see similarities between them, your pet reptiles and alligators, in any way?
A: Yeah. Just the climates they like. Crested geckos are a very, uh, humid climate kind of animal, and so they have a lot of similarities with the weather that alligators like.
Q: What's something that, like, you've learned about alligators since you've been working here?
A: Just how long they really live and how big they actually get. Growing up here, spending my summers in Florida, I knew alligators got big, but they get really big.
Q: So working here at the museum, have you had any memorable customer interactions?
A: We have so many people who come out that actually work with alligators, so people who work at the farms or any of alligator attractions, like Gatorland, and also the smaller businesses that have alligators and let people see them and everything. We get so many of those people, and it's great to see people who also work with alligators on a daily basis.
Q: Yes. Yeah, anything else that you wanna share with the good people of New Orleans and the world?
A: That we're finally open full time! We have had so many mysterious rumors about us in the neighborhood, and now you can actually come check us out and see that we are the real deal! You can come see us any day of the week.
Q: Yay! Okay, last question. What is your number one piece of alligator advice?
A: If the water's wet, there's an alligator in it.
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Come learn all about alligators from their natural history to their storied interactions with humans at the Great American Alligator Museum.
We’re open seven days a week. Check Google Maps for up-to-date hours.
Museum admission is free. The Gator Museum is supported by individual donations and gift store purchases.
We hope to see you soon!