Forum Network

Clare Richardson is president and CEO of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. She travels to the Karisoke Center in Rwanda on a regular basis. Previously, she was executive vice president of marketing and development at Zoo Atlanta.

Mwami Alexis Kalinda is a leader in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He serves as the executive secretary for an association of all the Mwamis (a term for a traditional king), which created the network of community-based nature reserves that the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International supports. He also serves on its board of directors and is president of the Walikale community-based reserve, which consists of a large section of land that has been managed by his family for generations.

Photo Courtesy of Brian Pellinen.

Tara Stoinski is also the McGrath chair of conservation and science with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Her areas of interest include the re-introduction of captive-born animals, cognition, social behavior, reproduction, and captive management. She received her PhD in 2000 from the University of Georgia.

Juan Carlos Bonilla was previously Conservation International's senior director for central Africa.

Harold Evans, the author of* The American Century* and now *They Made America*, is a celebrated historian and journalist. He was the editor of the *Sunday Times* of London for 14 years and then the *Times* of London before settling in 1984 in America, where he has been successively founding editor of *CondéNast Traveler*; president and publisher of Random House; editorial director and vice chairman of *U.S. News & World Report*, the *Atlantic* magazine, *Fast Company*, and the New York Daily News. In 2002 Britain's journalists voted Evans the greatest all-time British newspaper editor. He was knighted in Queen Elizabeth's 2004 New Year honors list.

Sharon Squires joined the sociology department at the Dominguez Hills campus of California State University in 2004. From 2001 to 2004, she was the teacher scholar in residence and faculty in the sociology/anthropology department at Truman State University in Kirksville, MO. She completed her PhD in rural sociology in 1999.

Rhonda Wilkins earned her doctorate in higher education from Georgia State University. Over the last 15 years, she has served as a program coordinator, dean of students and assistant professor of teacher education. Georgia Perimeter College is a large, multi-campus, two-year institution located in metropolitan Atlanta.

Willie Smits is also the chairman of the Masarang Foundation, which strives to save the environment through the active role of the local population. Smits was born in The Netherlands but is now an Indonesian citizen. He is a former personal advisor to the Indonesian minister of forestry and team leader of the Tropenbos tropical forestry research project.

Augustine Conduah practices orthopedic surgery, with a specialty in sports medicine. His academic history includes a fellowship at Hughston Sports Medicine Hospital and a medical degree from the University of California at Los Angeles.