We are a young nonprofit started by a group of biologists who love nature and are concerned about the state of the world’s forests. We each have our own approach but all of us have been working on research and conservation for decades.
Our Team
Officers:
Rebecca has been passionate about African wildlife since she was a young child. She earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Biological Anthropology/Anatomy and Philosophy with certificates in Primatology and Art from Duke University in 1994. While an undergraduate student at Duke, she was able to participate in research of free-ranging lemurs at the Duke Lemur Center, including her honor’s thesis on sex differences in the control of power in red-fronted lemurs. After graduation, Rebecca backpacked around East Africa and volunteered with lemur research in Madagascar. In 1994-1995, she managed a research camp in the montane rain forest of Mantadia National Park, Madagascar. In 1996, Rebecca returned to Duke University to pursue a Ph.D. While in graduate school, she participated in research in tropical dry forests in Brazil and Madagascar, before earning her Ph.D. in Biological Anthropology/Anatomy in 2004. Rebecca then joined the faculty in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she currently is a Professor.
Rebecca has spent more than 25 years conducting lemur research in Madagascar. She has worked in rain forests, multiple dry forests, and the spiny forest. The majority of her research has been focused on the behavior and ecology of Verreaux’s sifaka, a lemur that specializes in the dry and spiny forests of western Madagascar. In 2006, she established the Ankoatsifaka Research Station in the Kirindy Mitea National Park, Madagascar. Over the years, she has become increasingly concerned about climate change, conservation of the flora and fauna inhabiting tropical dry forests, and the well-being of the people living in and around these forests.
Rebecca currently serves as a member of the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Primate Specialist Group and on the Editorial Board for the American Journal of Biological Anthropology. She has been active in multiple professional organizations, including the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, International Primatological Society, and the American Society of Primatologists. She was the Founding President for the Texas Association of Biological Anthropologists and later years served as the Secretary and as Vice President. She has been a consultant for many media organizations interested the biodiversity of dry forests in Madagascar. Rebecca is the Founder of the Ankoatsifaka Research Station.
Anne first learned about Madagascar in 1990 as she was completing her pre-med undergraduate degree at University of Delaware. Four years later she embarked on a four month solo mountain bike adventure of the Red Island as an amateur photographer. She fell in love with the people and the forests (and lemurs!) of Madagascar and returned to the US committed to enroll in a conservation ecology graduate program. At Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies she earned a Master of Forest Science after completing an extensive survey of the lemur, Indri indri throughout the rain forests of eastern Madagascar.
During a 4 year stint as a Data Manager with the Utah Natural Heritage Program (Division of Wildlife Resources), Anne volunteered as a search dog handler with Rocky Mountain Rescue Mountain Dogs in Salt Lake City where she briefly served as Secretary for the volunteer, non-profit organization. Anne returned to Madagascar in 2005 to begin research on ring-tailed lemurs and sifaka in tropical dry forests. She was subsequently awarded a combined Ph.D. in Fisheries and Wildlife and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology and Behavior with a Specialization in African Studies (that reflects her study of the Malagasy language and Africa Area Studies). While Anne still enjoys visiting the rain forest, she is truly passionate about the flora and fauna of Madagascar’s tropical dry forests. She has provided many opportunities for both Malagasy and American graduate and undergraduate students to study these unique ecosystems.
As a Landscape Ecologist, Anne specializes in mapping forest cover, forest disturbances such as fire and grazing, and lemur distributions. In addition, she uses soundscape ecology analysis to characterize differences between dry forest sites and better understand the ecological health of tropical dry forests. She also incorporates Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) into her field research to obtain high resolution images of the forest and create 3-D images of dry forest canopy. Anne accepted a Lecturer position at the University of Michigan while she was finishing her PhD, but she is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Marshall University in Huntington, WV where she also serves as Assistant Chair.
Sierra is a conservation biologist with a passion for ecology. She attended the School for Field Studies at the Center for Rain Forest Studies in Australia in 1992, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and a minor in Environmental Studies from Willamette University in 1994, and a Master of Arts in Biology with an emphasis in Ecology at San Diego State University in 2002. Her master’s thesis examined the effects of habitat fragmentation on large mammals in a San Diego County regional corridor.
Throughout Sierra’s professional career, she has focused on conservation of healthy ecosystems in the western United States. Early in her career, she served as a staff Biologist for both private and government organizations, including the Conservation Biology Institute, USGS Western Ecological Research Center, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and US Fish and Wildlife Service. She also has worked as a Biological Consultant with AMEC Earth and Environmental developing wildlife management plans, conducting site evaluations, and helping clients negotiate environmental regulations. For the last decade, Sierra has been addressing freshwater conservation, as a Watershed Coordinator for the Greater Gallatin Watershed Council, Water Quality Technician for the Gallatin Local Water Quality District, and working at The Nature Conservancy as Freshwater Conservation Project Manager. Currently, she is the Climate Conservation Coordinator at the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.
Involvement with conservation organizations is very important to Sierra. For example, she served on the Montana Watershed Coordination Council Board of Directors from 2015 to 2018 and is currently serving on the Big Hole Watershed Committee. She assisted American Wildlands with research and outreach programs. She also volunteered with the Gallatin Stream Team Program collecting scientific data on water quality and presenting the findings to the general public in annual symposia. Sierra also shares her love of the outdoors with her two children through their local Scout BSA program, where she serves as an Assistant Scout Master.