About Aaron

Close-up of small orange mushrooms growing among tree bark, green moss, and decaying leaves in a forest environment.
Glow-in-the-dark orange coral-like formations on a dark, rocky surface illuminated at night.
Group of small, light pink and beige mushrooms growing on a decayed piece of wood on a tree trunk.
A smiling man with short dark hair and a beard, wearing a purple T-shirt and a beaded bracelet, poses in a dense forest with tall trees and green foliage. He is holding his hand near his ear as if listening, and another person in the background is wearing a hat and a backpack.
Glow-in-the-dark mushrooms growing among grass and plant debris in a dark environment.
A smiling man wearing an orange cap and a white T-shirt with fish illustrations, holding a clear plastic container with a Fungal Diversity Survey label, at an outdoor event with a yellow tent and mountains in the background.

Aaron Tupac (they/them) is a mycologist, educator, community organizer, and speaker based in Los Angeles. Aaron is the organizer of the fungi-focused community education group Exploring the Mycoverse.

Aaron works for the Fungal Diversity Survey, a nonprofit focused on North America's fungal biodiversity and conservation. They serve as a fungi collector for the California Fungal Diversity Survey, the first government-funded state-wide project of its kind.

Aaron is also the founding chair of the North American Mycological Association’s Conservation and Stewardship Committee.

Aaron is passionate about fungi conservation advocacy, ecological restoration, and making fungi education accessible for all ages and demographics. As a lover of the more-than-human world, they are fascinated with fungi and their essential role in the interconnection of all living beings.

A man standing in front of an outdoor presentation screen, reading from a paper, with a whiteboard to his side and a ladder nearby, in a setting with trees and a wooden fence.

As an educator, Aaron gives walks and talks to all ages. They regularly give walks through the Theodore Payne Foundation. Every mushroom season Aaron gives free-to-the-public walks & talks through the LA Public Libraries.

Through higher education, they have spoken at the University of Southern California, Occidental College, and Pomona-Claremont Colleges. They have taught children at several K-12 schools in the Los Angeles area such as Octavia E. Butler Magnet Middle School, Hawks LA, the Children’s Forest School, and Friends Western School. They also give talks at environmentally conscious organizations such as the California Native Plant Society, Arlington Garden and LA Compost.

Aaron enjoys hosting large interactive workshops on fungi-inspired community building at festivals such as the North American Mycological Annual Foray, Radical Mycology Convergence, For the Love of Fungi Festival, and the Los Angeles Permaculture Convergence.

They lead private workshops, talks, and walks as well on fungi-inspired community building, fungi education, community, science, fungal conservation, and ecological best practices for cultivating relationships with fungi.

For more about Aaron’s events.

Group of children and adults outdoors in front of trees, participating in an outdoor event or nature walk, smiling at the camera.
Group of children and an adult outside on dirt ground, closely examining something with magnifying glasses.

Interviews & Profiles

Why mycorrhizal fungi networks need more protection – High Country News

Aaron sharing stories of how to conserve Joshua Trees, state of conservation mycology, and the abundance of fungi.

“We know native plants, we know native animals, but we don’t know native fungi.”

“‘Perhaps we don’t have to just think about what is rare and scarce,’” they said. ‘“Why not make the case for protecting what is abundant?’”

A Personal Mycoperspective on January L.A. Wildfires – North American Mycological Association’s Mycophile

Aaron’s reflections on the devastating local fires that burned their sites of science research and classes as well as their places of recreation, love, and solitude.

“I look forward to witnessing how fungi and the natural world respond to the fires, teaching us what to do and how to recover. Perhaps we can let our grief for the damage done to the places we love teach us how to love them back together again.”

Mushroom Magic at the Huntington - The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens

Aaron’s community science work and advocacy in the garden helped inspire one of the largest botanic gardens in the world center fungi in their conservation initiatives. A place where Aaron regularly leads community science surveys and gives talks about fungi.

CA FUNDIS Year One Report

In our first year we documented over 5,000 species where almost a third of our DNA sequenced collections did not match existing records.
Many of which are new species.

Check out our iNaturalist to see all CA FUNDIS observations.

A young man wearing a beige sweatshirt and a cap, smiling, holding a large mushroom at an outdoor event with trees in the background.

Arlington Garden Interview

Organizing fungal community in a local garden via Exploring the Mycoverse.

A man with dark, curly hair stands outdoors, reading from a paper in front of a microphone. Behind him, a whiteboard displays handwritten notes, and a large, blank screen is set up. The background features green foliage and sunlight filtering through the leaves, with some decorative string lights hanging nearby.

VoyageLA Interview

How fungi inspired Aaron to become a mycologist and understand themselves on a deeper level through queerness
and being non-binary.

A teacher or adult showing students how to use a microscope in a classroom.

LAist Octavia Butler Science Fair

Teaching students the wonders of fungi.