Staff
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Renee Seidler
Pronghorn Field Leader
Renee is originally from the Pacific Northwest. She received her B.S. in Molecular and Microbiology from Arizona State University and her Masters degree in Wildlife Biology from Utah State University. She began working with WCS in 2003 and helped to launch the Wildlife and Energy Development project in the Upper Green River Basin in 2005. She has conducted behavioral and ecological research on coyotes, wolves, moose, pronghorn, small mammals, and birds in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Panama. She is composing manuscripts from her thesis work on coyote predation management and was awarded the Richard Denny Best Speaker Award by the Colorado Chapter of The Wildlife Society for presentation of this work. Renee's area of expertise is in field design and research.
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Renee Seidler
Pronghorn Field Leader
Renee is originally from the Pacific Northwest. She received her B.S. in Molecular and Microbiology from Arizona State University and her Masters degree in Wildlife Biology from Utah State University. She began working with WCS in 2003 and helped to launch the Wildlife and Energy Development project in the Upper Green River Basin in 2005. She has conducted behavioral and ecological research on coyotes, wolves, moose, pronghorn, small mammals, and birds in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Panama. She is composing manuscripts from her thesis work on coyote predation management and was awarded the Richard Denny Best Speaker Award by the Colorado Chapter of The Wildlife Society for presentation of this work. Renee's area of expertise is in field design and research.
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Sarah Olson
Epidemiologist
Sarah is a wildlife epidemiologist researching the wildlife trade and emerging infectious diseases. Although based in Nanaimo, BC, she works closely with WCS veterinarians in the Republic of Congo as they design studies to understand the emergence of Ebola and it's impact on western lowland gorilla populations. Sarah received a joint PhD in Population Health and Environment & Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interest focuses on the intersection of wildlife, human, and environmental health.
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Sarah Olson
Epidemiologist
Sarah is a wildlife epidemiologist researching the wildlife trade and emerging infectious diseases. Although based in Nanaimo, BC, she works closely with WCS veterinarians in the Republic of Congo as they design studies to understand the emergence of Ebola and it's impact on western lowland gorilla populations. Sarah received a joint PhD in Population Health and Environment & Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interest focuses on the intersection of wildlife, human, and environmental health.
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Sarah Reed
Associate Conservationist with Livelihoods Program
Sarah Reed is Associate Conservation Scientist with the Livelihoods Program. She is currently a Smith Conservation Research Fellow at Colorado State University. Her research examines how human development patterns and land use practices affect wildlife and biodiversity. Sarah has worked extensively with government agencies and conservation organizations, addressing issues from local to national scales of resource management, in public as well as private lands contexts. She is especially motivated by research projects that have the potential to inform land use decisions and conservation policies as well as to expand our understanding of how species respond to human disturbances. Sarah’s current research investigates alternative strategies for residential site design to protect biodiversity on private lands. Sarah recently joined the Board of Directors for the Society of Conservation Biology – North America Section. She also lead several projects—Dr. Reed: 1) Co-leads an interdisciplinary working group on the social, economic, and ecological dimensions of conservation development (School of Global Environmental Sustainability); 2) Integrates social and biological information to map human-wildlife conflicts (National Wildlife Research Center), and 3) Maps how habitat connectivity and threats to connectivity in southern Colorado (Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Collaborative). Sarah earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy & Management from University of California, Berkeley. She is based in Fort Collins, Colorado.
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Sarah Reed
Associate Conservationist with Livelihoods Program
Sarah Reed is Associate Conservation Scientist with the Livelihoods Program. She is currently a Smith Conservation Research Fellow at Colorado State University. Her research examines how human development patterns and land use practices affect wildlife and biodiversity. Sarah has worked extensively with government agencies and conservation organizations, addressing issues from local to national scales of resource management, in public as well as private lands contexts. She is especially motivated by research projects that have the potential to inform land use decisions and conservation policies as well as to expand our understanding of how species respond to human disturbances. Sarah’s current research investigates alternative strategies for residential site design to protect biodiversity on private lands. Sarah recently joined the Board of Directors for the Society of Conservation Biology – North America Section. She also lead several projects—Dr. Reed: 1) Co-leads an interdisciplinary working group on the social, economic, and ecological dimensions of conservation development (School of Global Environmental Sustainability); 2) Integrates social and biological information to map human-wildlife conflicts (National Wildlife Research Center), and 3) Maps how habitat connectivity and threats to connectivity in southern Colorado (Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Collaborative). Sarah earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Science, Policy & Management from University of California, Berkeley. She is based in Fort Collins, Colorado.
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Sean Matthews
Hoopa Fisher Landscape Coordinator
Like the small carnivore he is studying, Sean Matthews loves climbing to the top of some of the world’s tallest trees which make up one of the world’s most diverse conifer forests to learn more about one of North America’s most secretive forest-dwelling mammals. As the Hoopa Fisher Project Director, Sean is working cooperatively with the Hoopa Valley Tribe to assess critical elements of fisher ecology and to build capacity for wildlife conservation within the local community. The fisher is a member of the weasel family, related to its larger cousin the wolverine, a candidate for federal and California endangered species status, and culturally significant to the Hupa people. Sean is working with Tribal and other regional forest managers to provide information on fisher ecology that will assist in wildlife management decision-making and allow for continued revenues stemming from sustainable timber management on the Hoopa Reservation. Sean’s work is focusing on the characteristics of trees female fishers select to give birth and raise their kits, taking him over one hundred feet above the forest floor to find fisher den cavities. Sean is also successfully providing internship and technician opportunities for community members with the goal of becoming future leaders in wildlife conservation and management on native lands. He is also co-directing the Coastal Martes Working group, charged with addressing fisher and marten conservation in the Pacific northwest. Sean joined WCS in 2001 to direct a four-year research project which addressed human-black bear interactions in Yosemite National Park, California. He and his colleagues examined the recent history of human-bear conflicts, provided an evaluation of the interpretive communication system, described bear activity patterns near recreational development, and quantified bear food habits. With this information, Sean and his colleagues were able to provide park managers with specific management recommendations to reduce the number of human-bear conflicts. Sean escaped the urban wilds of the Los Angeles basin where he grew up for the remote coastline of northern California in 1992 to pursue a bachelors and masters degree at Humboldt State University. His masters thesis involved working with the Hoopa Valley Tribe to develop a density estimate of black bears on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation and describe elements of bear ecology related to damage caused by bears to managed timber stands. When not probing the private lives of bears and fishers, Sean especially enjoys swimming with white sharks while surfing off the northern California coast and meandering walks with his wife in a local botanical garden.
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Sean Matthews
Hoopa Fisher Landscape Coordinator
Like the small carnivore he is studying, Sean Matthews loves climbing to the top of some of the world’s tallest trees which make up one of the world’s most diverse conifer forests to learn more about one of North America’s most secretive forest-dwelling mammals. As the Hoopa Fisher Project Director, Sean is working cooperatively with the Hoopa Valley Tribe to assess critical elements of fisher ecology and to build capacity for wildlife conservation within the local community. The fisher is a member of the weasel family, related to its larger cousin the wolverine, a candidate for federal and California endangered species status, and culturally significant to the Hupa people. Sean is working with Tribal and other regional forest managers to provide information on fisher ecology that will assist in wildlife management decision-making and allow for continued revenues stemming from sustainable timber management on the Hoopa Reservation. Sean’s work is focusing on the characteristics of trees female fishers select to give birth and raise their kits, taking him over one hundred feet above the forest floor to find fisher den cavities. Sean is also successfully providing internship and technician opportunities for community members with the goal of becoming future leaders in wildlife conservation and management on native lands. He is also co-directing the Coastal Martes Working group, charged with addressing fisher and marten conservation in the Pacific northwest. Sean joined WCS in 2001 to direct a four-year research project which addressed human-black bear interactions in Yosemite National Park, California. He and his colleagues examined the recent history of human-bear conflicts, provided an evaluation of the interpretive communication system, described bear activity patterns near recreational development, and quantified bear food habits. With this information, Sean and his colleagues were able to provide park managers with specific management recommendations to reduce the number of human-bear conflicts. Sean escaped the urban wilds of the Los Angeles basin where he grew up for the remote coastline of northern California in 1992 to pursue a bachelors and masters degree at Humboldt State University. His masters thesis involved working with the Hoopa Valley Tribe to develop a density estimate of black bears on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation and describe elements of bear ecology related to damage caused by bears to managed timber stands. When not probing the private lives of bears and fishers, Sean especially enjoys swimming with white sharks while surfing off the northern California coast and meandering walks with his wife in a local botanical garden.
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Shannon Roberts
Financial/Operations Manager
As Financial/Operations Manager of the North America Program, Shannon is responsible for the creation, implementation and analysis of the North America Program's multi-million dollar budget. She also manages the operational details at the main headquarters of the North America Program as well as two other multi-staffed offices and multiple field sites. Shannon is the North America Program Human Resource liaison and is responsible for assisting with recruiting, hiring, evaluating and promoting NAP staff and all of the details associated with that duty. Shannon joined WCS in 2007 and brings many years of conservation finance experience with various other organizations. Shannon also has experience as Director of an active vacation company. Shannon is a fourth generation Montanan, and as sister, daughter and grand-daughter of US Forest Service engineers she grew up appreciating the importance of conservation management and the cohesive relationship between government agencies and the public. Shannon's education is in Political Science from Montana State University, as well as a plethora of additional finance, travel and business management courses.
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Shannon Roberts
Financial/Operations Manager
As Financial/Operations Manager of the North America Program, Shannon is responsible for the creation, implementation and analysis of the North America Program's multi-million dollar budget. She also manages the operational details at the main headquarters of the North America Program as well as two other multi-staffed offices and multiple field sites. Shannon is the North America Program Human Resource liaison and is responsible for assisting with recruiting, hiring, evaluating and promoting NAP staff and all of the details associated with that duty. Shannon joined WCS in 2007 and brings many years of conservation finance experience with various other organizations. Shannon also has experience as Director of an active vacation company. Shannon is a fourth generation Montanan, and as sister, daughter and grand-daughter of US Forest Service engineers she grew up appreciating the importance of conservation management and the cohesive relationship between government agencies and the public. Shannon's education is in Political Science from Montana State University, as well as a plethora of additional finance, travel and business management courses.
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Steve Zack
Arctic Landscape Coordinator
As Pacific West Coordinator in the North America Program of WCS, Steve has initiated and lead efforts in this region on forest management, riparian and stream management, and has worked with birds as indicators of how such management matters for wildlife conservation. Steve helped shape "Healthy Forest" legislation with Congressional testimony, and added wildlife information to federal stream assessment protocols for the first time. In 2001, Steve began migrating up and back with breeding birds to Arctic Alaska and developed an ongoing program evaluating the effects of oil development on wildlife, the effects of climate change, and efforts to create protected areas in the wildlife-rich western Arctic of Alaska where the largest public land, the NPR-A, is about to become developed. Parallel to the Arctic efforts, Steve developed a "Birds-Bison" initiative to boost WCS's "Ecological Recovery of Bison" initiative in 2008. Grassland birds in the Great Plains are the most imperiled group of birds in North America, and grazing management of bison may assist their conservation, according to Dr. Zack. Steve earned his B.S. from Oregon State (1978), his PhD from the University of New Mexico (1985), and then was a post-doc through Purdue before teaching at Yale University (1989-1993). Through these posts he conducted research on birds in Kenya, Venezuela, and then Madagascar before joining WCS in 1997 to become part of the then-new North America Program.
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Steve Zack
Arctic Landscape Coordinator
As Pacific West Coordinator in the North America Program of WCS, Steve has initiated and lead efforts in this region on forest management, riparian and stream management, and has worked with birds as indicators of how such management matters for wildlife conservation. Steve helped shape "Healthy Forest" legislation with Congressional testimony, and added wildlife information to federal stream assessment protocols for the first time. In 2001, Steve began migrating up and back with breeding birds to Arctic Alaska and developed an ongoing program evaluating the effects of oil development on wildlife, the effects of climate change, and efforts to create protected areas in the wildlife-rich western Arctic of Alaska where the largest public land, the NPR-A, is about to become developed. Parallel to the Arctic efforts, Steve developed a "Birds-Bison" initiative to boost WCS's "Ecological Recovery of Bison" initiative in 2008. Grassland birds in the Great Plains are the most imperiled group of birds in North America, and grazing management of bison may assist their conservation, according to Dr. Zack. Steve earned his B.S. from Oregon State (1978), his PhD from the University of New Mexico (1985), and then was a post-doc through Purdue before teaching at Yale University (1989-1993). Through these posts he conducted research on birds in Kenya, Venezuela, and then Madagascar before joining WCS in 1997 to become part of the then-new North America Program.
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Tammie O'Rourke
Systems Integrator
Tammie joined the Wildlife Conservation Society in June 2010 as a Systems Integrator. Her main role is to develop information management processes and procedures to help manage and standardize conservation data. Tammie has over 25 years of experience in IT, working with a very broad range of computer systems and technologies.
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Tammie O'Rourke
Systems Integrator
Tammie joined the Wildlife Conservation Society in June 2010 as a Systems Integrator. Her main role is to develop information management processes and procedures to help manage and standardize conservation data. Tammie has over 25 years of experience in IT, working with a very broad range of computer systems and technologies.
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Tanya Rosen
Community Liasion
Tanya serves as the Yellowstone Rockies Community Liasion and works with Livelihoods and Conservation Coordinator and Yellowstone Rockies Coordinator to build and enact an integrated and cohesive wildlife conservation strategy for the 'High Divide' (the connectivity zone between the Greater Yellowstone, central Idaho and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems). The strategy involves engaging communities, counties and agencies on wildlife and planning issues in the High Divide and working to craft and implement socially and ecologically-sustainable conservation activities. Tanya began her career as a practicing international lawyer in Italy and the US and worked in that capacity between 1996 and 2003. Since 2003, she has been increasingly dividing her time between New York and Ennis, Montana studying bears with the USGS Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team and working on human-wildlife conflicts as research associate of the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative. When not in Montana, Tanya has been working with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, following negotiations on trade in endangered species and biodiversity conservation, and finishing degrees in science in between. Tanya is managing editor of the IBA/BSG International Bear News and vice-chair of the IUCN WCPA Transboundary Conservation Specialist Group.
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Tanya Rosen
Community Liasion
Tanya serves as the Yellowstone Rockies Community Liasion and works with Livelihoods and Conservation Coordinator and Yellowstone Rockies Coordinator to build and enact an integrated and cohesive wildlife conservation strategy for the 'High Divide' (the connectivity zone between the Greater Yellowstone, central Idaho and Northern Continental Divide ecosystems). The strategy involves engaging communities, counties and agencies on wildlife and planning issues in the High Divide and working to craft and implement socially and ecologically-sustainable conservation activities. Tanya began her career as a practicing international lawyer in Italy and the US and worked in that capacity between 1996 and 2003. Since 2003, she has been increasingly dividing her time between New York and Ennis, Montana studying bears with the USGS Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team and working on human-wildlife conflicts as research associate of the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative. When not in Montana, Tanya has been working with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the International Institute for Sustainable Development, following negotiations on trade in endangered species and biodiversity conservation, and finishing degrees in science in between. Tanya is managing editor of the IBA/BSG International Bear News and vice-chair of the IUCN WCPA Transboundary Conservation Specialist Group.
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Zoe Smith
Adirondacks Landscape Coordinator
Zoe Smith joined WCS in 2000 and is currently the Landscape Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Program. Her conservation interests lie in working with communities on local issues particularly wildlife conflict on the human/wild interface and building local leadership for conservation. Zoe is an active member of the Adirondack Common Ground Alliance core group and participates in various regional Smart Growth projects. Zoe was an appointed member of the Northern Forest Center’s Sustainable Economy Initiative that developed a 4-state economic strategy for rural Northern Forest communities. Zoe leads WCS’ Black Bear Education, Awareness, and Research Program and is a member of the New York State Black Bear Management Team. She currently sits on the Boards of the Adirondack Economic Development Corporation and Sustainable Communities Inc. Zoe has lived and worked in the Adirondack Park for almost 20 years and is an active member of her local community. Her professional background is in wilderness recreation leadership, management, and community building. She holds a BA in Natural Resource Economics from SUNY Fredonia.
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Zoe Smith
Adirondacks Landscape Coordinator
Zoe Smith joined WCS in 2000 and is currently the Landscape Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Program. Her conservation interests lie in working with communities on local issues particularly wildlife conflict on the human/wild interface and building local leadership for conservation. Zoe is an active member of the Adirondack Common Ground Alliance core group and participates in various regional Smart Growth projects. Zoe was an appointed member of the Northern Forest Center’s Sustainable Economy Initiative that developed a 4-state economic strategy for rural Northern Forest communities. Zoe leads WCS’ Black Bear Education, Awareness, and Research Program and is a member of the New York State Black Bear Management Team. She currently sits on the Boards of the Adirondack Economic Development Corporation and Sustainable Communities Inc. Zoe has lived and worked in the Adirondack Park for almost 20 years and is an active member of her local community. Her professional background is in wilderness recreation leadership, management, and community building. She holds a BA in Natural Resource Economics from SUNY Fredonia.
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