Herper of the week

Herper of the Week: Dr. Helen Meredith

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Each week I select a “Herper” of the Week. These individuals come from all sorts of backgrounds but they all have one common interest – “herps” (reptiles and amphbians). Hopefully, you will learn about them and their important work.

This week’s Herper of the Week is Dr. Helen Meredith, the Executive Director of the Amphibian Survival Alliance (ASA). She earned her Ph.D from the  Institute of Zoology (ZSL) and the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent. Her thesis was focused on developing evidence-based conservation decision making practices.

Before becoming the Executive Director of the ASA, she coordinated the EDGE Amphibians initiative at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). EDGE is a global conservation initiative that focuses on threatened species that have unique evolutionary histories. It is a wonderful program.

 

 

Herper of the week

Herper of the Week: Molly Albecker

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The goal of Herper of the Week is to highlight people from all walks of life who work with reptiles and amphibians and show their work to others.  This month, all the Herpers of the Week will be women for Women’s History Month. This week’s Herper is Molly Albecker, Ph.D candidate at East Carolina University in McCoy’s Lab.

Her research focuses on characterizing patterns of local adaptation in amphibians inhabiting saline habitats by determining how phenotypes (behavior, life history, physiology) at different life stages (egg, tadpole, adult) differ across populations.

She earned her Master’s from East Carolina University and her Bacherlor’s at the Mary Washington University. Her Master’s thesis was on  the Risk assessment and behavioral choices of larval anurans (Rana sphenocephala).

You can visit her website to learn more

Herper of the week

Herper of the Week: Dr. Amanda Zellmer

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The goal of Herper of the Week is to highlight people from all walks of life who work with reptiles and amphibians and show their work to others. This month, all the Herpers of the Week will be women for Women’s History Month. This week’s Herper is Dr Amanda Zellmer, Assistant Professor of Biology at Occidental College. She leads the Occidental College Computational Biology Lab.

Dr. Amanda Zellmer’s research focuses on the utility and development of computational methods for studying spatial ecological and evolutionary processes, particularly in the context of conservation biology. Her work usually deals with amphibians but has done research on other animals. She also is very interested in urban salamanders and showing that their is wildlife in LA.

She earned her Bachelors of Science from the University of Wisconsin. She earned her Ph.D from the University of Michigan.

Herper of the week

Herper of the Week: Priya Nanjappa

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The goal of Herper of the Week is to highlight people from all walks of life who work with reptiles and amphibians and show their work to others.  This month, all the Herpers of the Week will be women for Women’s History Month. This week’s Herper is Priya Nanjappa. She is a Program Manager at the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies and also the National Coordinator for Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC).

At the Association of Fish & Wildlife, Priya directs reptile and amphibian conservation and invasive species policy. She is also the leader of the Response Working Group of the Bsal Task Force, an international team that works to stop the invasive amphibian pathogens from killing all the amphibians.

You can find her on twitter @ThatPARCPriya