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Greater Yellowstone Staff
WCS Greater Yellowstone Program Contact Information
Director: Jodi Hilty (bio)
Senior Program Manager: Shannon Roberts (bio)
Program Manager for Western US: Jeff Burrell (bio)
Address:
North America Program
Wildlife Conservation Society
301 North Willson Avenue
Bozeman, Montana 59715
Email: jburrell@wcs.org
Greater Yellowstone Program Staff Biographies
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Rob Ament - western-based program coordinator
 Rob has more than 25 years of experience in environmental policy, natural resource management, and organizational development. Before joining WCS in 2006, Rob served as the executive director for American Wildlands, a nonprofit conservation organization, where he developed significant wildlife corridors and wildlife-highway programs. His master’s degree is in biological sciences from Montana State University.
email: rament@wcs.org
Keith Aune - senior conservation scientist
 Keith received his bachelors in wildlife biology from the University of Montana, Missoula and a Masters Degree in Fish and Wildlife Management from Montana State University, Bozeman. Keith is Senior Conservation Scientist for WCS and working on several issues including a granting program for the Wildlife Action Opportunities Fund, the WCS Corridor Initiative, and the American Bison. Keith comes to WCS from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP) where he served for 31 years in various capacities. He has conducted field or laboratory research on black and grizzly bears, wildlife diseases, wolverine, lions and bison. In his most recent position at MFWP he served as the Chief of Wildlife Research for FWP and directed multiple research projects across Montana as well as supervising the annual harvest survey and the Wildlife Research Laboratory staff.
email: kaune@wcs.org
Jon Beckmann - associate conservation ecologist
Jon earned a Ph.D. in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology from the University of Nevada-Reno. He has 10 years of experience in wildlife conservation working on species ranging for black bears, cougars, pronghorn, small mammals, to shorebirds. In 2004, he was nominated by his peers for the Alan T. Waterman Award, the most prestigious award from the National Science Foundation for scientists under the age of 35. He is currently project director of the WCS Centennials Carnivore Corridor project.
email: jbeckmann@wcs.org
Joel Berger - senior field scientist
Joel received his doctoral degree in biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and subsequently worked for the Smithsonian Institution 7 years, before becoming a tenured full professor at the University of Nevada, Reno (16 years). His current research focuses on the conservation of species and intact ecosystems. He has written 3 books (on wild horses, rhinos, and bison). Dr. Berger directs a number of projects for WCS; among these are the saiga antelope conservation project in Mongolia, and the pronghorn migration corridor conservation and the impact of energy development on wildlife projects in Greater Yellowstone.
email: jberger@wcs.org
Kim Berger - wildlife research biologist
Kim received her doctorate in wildlife biology from Utah State University, her master’s degree in environmental and natural resource sciences from the University of Nevada, Reno, and her bachelor’s degree in economics from Weber State University. Her research targets policy implications of federal predator control programs, predator-prey dynamics and biological corridors.
email: kberger@wcs.org
Jeff Burrell - program manager for the Western U.S.
Raised on his family’s ranch in the Texas Panhandle, Jeff has been involved in wildlife conservation on private lands from an early age. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in range management and geology from Texas Tech University. He has taught and conducted research on geology and paleoecology throughout the western U.S. In addition to overseeing WCS projects in the West, Jeff works with a wide range of stakeholders to improve wildlife conservation on the private lands of Greater Yellowstone.
email: jburrell@wcs.org
Molly Cross - climate change ecologist
Molly is an ecologist whose research focuses on ecosystem responses to climate change and biodiversity loss. In January 2007, Molly joined WCS’s North America Program to examine the impacts of climate change on wildlife habitat conservation efforts. The primary goal of the project is to bring together experts in the fields of climate change, ecology, conservation planning and land management to develop a framework for approaching climate change adaptation through on-the-ground conservation practices in the Intermountain West of North America. Molly conducted her Ph.D. research at the University of California-Berkeley on ecosystem responses to climate warming-induced plant species loss in a sub-alpine meadow in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
email: mcross@wcs.org
Jodi Hilty - director of WCS’s North America Program
Jodi is a landscape ecologist and conservation biologist with a research focus on understanding thresholds of human impact on biodiversity. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkley in 2001. Jodi has published numerous peer-reviewed science journal papers focusing on the role of corridors in wildlife conservation, and is co-author of the recently published Corridor Ecology: The Science and Practice of Linking Landscapes for Biodiversity Conservation.
email: jhilty@wcs.org
Kristy Howe - field coordinator for the Sagebrush Steppe Ecology Project
Kristy Howe serves as the field coordinator for the Sagebrush Steppe Ecology Project in southeastern Idaho. She graduated from Colorado State University with a Bachelor's of Science in wildlife biology in 1999. She is currently working toward a Master's degree in biology at Idaho State University.
email: khowe@wcs.org
Bob Inman - director and co-principal investigator for the WCS’s Greater Yellowstone Wolverine Study
Bob has 12 years of experience working on wildlife projects with diverse areas of emphasis including carnivore research, state game management, neo-tropical songbird inventory and monitoring, endangered species management, and habitat quantification. In 1997, Bob earned a M.S. degree in wildlife ecology from the University of Tennessee. Bob is a doctorate candidate with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, where he will work with a Swedish and Norwegian team that leads the longest term, most comprehensive and extensive wolverine research study worldwide.
email: binman@wcs.org
Kris Inman - co-principal investigator for the WCS’s Greater Yellowstone Wolverine Study
Kris has several years of experience conducting research on a wide range of species including northern spotted owls, gray wolves, shorebirds and raptors. In addition, she has 8 years of experience researching black bears in varying habitats in Maine, Virginia, Oregon, and New Mexico. Kris graduated from the University of Maine with a B.S. in wildlife management and received her M.S. in wildlife ecology at Virginia Tech. Kris began working for the Hornocker Wildlife Institute in 1998 and through its merger with WCS began conducting wolverine research in the Greater Yellowstone in 2001.
email: kinman@wcs.org
Larry Jorgenson - western conservation associate
 Larry joins WCS with extensive experience in law and public service. He was a County Commissioner for Teton County, Wyoming, and is a past chairman of the Teton Conservation District. He is a former Assistant United States Attorney and former U.S. Magistrate Judge. His interaction with local, state and federal government agencies has been broad and informative and he has developed an abiding interest in the processes of governments addressing land-use and conservation issues. His formative years spent on a cattle ranch instilled in him a deep respect for the natural world and those who live in it. Larry writes poetry about his thoughts while thinking outdoors.
email: ljorgenson@wcs.org
Darren Long - Duke grants program manager
As program officer for WCS, Darren is responsible for all management, administration and grantmaking activities of the Wildlife Action Opportunities Fund; a 2-year program funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which makes grants to support nonprofit conservation organizations working to implement priorities of State Wildlife Action Plans. Prior to joining WCS in August of 2006, Darren worked for The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation in Atlanta, the Turner Foundation, and for Emory University’s Living Links Center, where he studied the behavior of apes and monkeys.
email: dlong@wcs.org
Mark Packila - assistant biologist for the Greater Yellowstone Wolverine Study
 Mark has worked with WCS and the Wolverine Program since 2003 helping to coordinate and participate in the field effort and serves as one of the telemetry pilots for the program. His educational background is in genetics from Bemidji State University.
email: mpackila@wcs.org
Melissa Richey - program development officer
Melissa is responsible for the fundraising activities of the NAP, primarily in the western U.S. Melissa has worked as a fundraiser for Montana State University, Duke University School of Law, and the Sonoran Institute. She earned a M.P.A. with a focus in nonprofit management from North Carolina State University.
email: mrichey@wcs.org
Shannon Roberts - financial/program manager
Now full-time, Shannon originally came to WCS on a part-time basis in July 2006. A native of Bozeman, Shannon has over 30 years of administrative and financial experience in the non-profit and private sector. She currently serves as Board Chair for American Wildlands and is a court appointed CASA/GAL in Gallatin County.
email: sroberts@wcs.org
Andra Toivola - Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialist
Andra received a B.S. degree in earth sciences, physical geography with an emphasis in biogeographical studies, from Montana State University in 2004. Since just after graduation, Andra has been assisting the WCS regional biologists with their ongoing geospatial research needs. She has also completed several GIS-based independent research investigations focused on western wildlife and ecology.
email: atoivola@wcs.org
Katy Wang - western conservation officer
Katy’s work involves developing an awareness of and support for WCS' programs in the West. She received a B.A. in American studies from Georgetown University and an M.S. in environmental education and behavior from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining WCS, Katy was the outreach program director at the North American Association for Environmental Education.
email: kwang@wcs.org
Leigh Work - corridor conservation and energy development
Leigh is an associate conservationist and directs WCS’s Pronghorn and Energy Project in the Upper Green River Basin. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and her master’s in environmental management from Yale University in 2004. Her research interests lie in applied population ecology, quantitative conservation biology, and large scale conservation planning.
email: lwork@wcs.org
Julie Young - wildlife ecologist
Julie is conservation biologist with a research focus on spatial and behavioral ecology of large mammals. Her previous research has focused on the relationship between behavior and population demography of California sea lions, coyote response to differential food resource availability, site fidelity and behavior of territorial male guanacos, and the re-introduction of African wild dogs. She received her Ph.D. from Utah State University in 2006.
email: jyoung@wcs.org
For a complete list of the North America Program staff click here
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