Staff
Dr. Gary Tabor is a conservation catalyst. He has championed large landscape conservation efforts throughout the world, notably the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y). His efforts have increased the conservation capacity of the Wildlife Conservation Society, the African Wildlife Foundation, the Wildlife Trust and numerous other conservation organizations. More recently, Gary established and directed the Wilburforce Foundation's Yellowstone to Yukon field office in Montana and in 1999 designed one of the first conservation science grant making programs in western North America. His conservation background includes eight years of international conservation work in East Africa and South America. Trained as a wildlife veterinarian and an ecologist, Gary also co-founded the Consortium for Conservation Medicine, an ecological health collaborative linking ecology, epidemiology, human and veterinary medicine, and public health. During his career, Gary has served as an adviser to six major private foundations and several bilateral and multilateral donor agencies in the area of environmental philanthropy. Gary is currently the NGO representative on the Board of Governors of the Society for Conservation Biology. Learn more about Dr. Tabor on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Tabor .
Raina Plowright is a disease ecologist. Trained as a veterinarian (Sydney University), epidemiologist, and ecologist (MSc and PhD - University of California, Davis), Raina's recent research focuses on the emergence of disease in relation to ecological change. Her dissertation work examined the population dynamics and epidemiology of Hendra virus in flying foxes in Northern Australia. Raina is the recipient of an Australia Fulbright graduate award; and an Australia Centenary Scholarship.
Leslie Bienen holds a DVM from Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and an MFA from the University of Iowa. For the last five years she has worked as a research consultant on a wide variety of wildlife and human health issues. Recent projects include work on rabies in Nepal, on the transdisciplinary investigation of emerging diseases, snowshoe hare fertility in the Rocky Mountain West, and numerous writing projects on conservation medicine and ecosystem health. Leslie is also a science journalist and enjoys the challenge of making complex issues concerning ecosystem health understandable to the public. She is a regular contributor to Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment and has published in Orion, Open Spaces, Conservation Magazine and elsewhere. Her publications can be viewed on her Web site, www.lesliebienen.com. The Marks-Bienen family lives in Portland, Oregon.
Dr. Abel Wolman is a mathematician. His recent research has focused on measurement-theoretic issues relating to the acquisition, aggregation, and analysis of conservation data, including the definition and quantitative measurement of biodiversity. Abel published a critical review of measurement practices used in conservation science, and has developed alternative approaches to habitat-sustainability scoring based on conjoint measurement and analysis. Abel’s current research also extends to the investigation and application of optimization routines for wildlife reserve and corridor design, and conservation planning in general.
Rob Ament, M.Sc., Biological Sciences, has more than 25 years of experience in field ecology, natural resource management, environmental policy, and organizational development. His work experience includes stints as the executive director of American Wildlands, North American conservation coordinator with the Wildlife Conservation Society and Road Ecology Program Manager at the Western Transportation Institute - Montana State University. He is the treasurer for The Wildlands Project's board and former chair of the board for the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.
Rosemary Burton joins us as an administrative assistant in the Bozeman
office. She holds a Masters in Architecture from Montana State University and a Bachelors of Environmental Design from Texas A&M University. She is an avid outdoorswoman and mother of two.