Graduate Conservation Internships
Since summer 1992, the Whitney R. Harris World Ecology Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis has facilitated the placement of graduate students in conservation internships. International students from Australia, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Spain, Venezuela and Zambia have completed internships. Internships have been conducted in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Kenya, Germany, Peru, Puerto Rico, as well as in Missouri, Louisiana, New York, Utah, and Washington, DC. Internships have been conducted with international non-governmental conservation groups (e.g., Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund), multinational institutions (e.g., The World Bank), federal agencies (e.g., Smithsonian Institution), and private organizations (e.g., Costa Rica's National Institute of Biodiversity, Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis Zoo).
A number of the graduates of this program have obtained positions in conservation-related fields. The conservation internship has been instrumental in securing post-graduate school employment for a number of interns. For example, Monica Romo joined Conservation International (based in Lima, Peru), Pedro Lopez-Valencia joined World Wildlife Fund in Washington, DC (Pedro is now working with a national research agency in Bogota, Colombia), Kevin Cool works for the State of Missouri as a Geospatial Analyst and Trish Consiglio (Distler) now works for the Center for Plant Conservation at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Organizations
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
American Museum
of Natural History, New York
Lorena Calvo, M.S. (Guatemala):
Education of public through displays
American Zoo & Aquaria Association
Peter Taylor, M.S. (US): Snakes
Associaciao Pro-Carnivora, Brazil
Frank Wolff, M.S. (Luxembourg):
Jaguar-Human Conflict
Center for Plant Conservation
Jacqueline Bratten, M.S. (US):
GIS application for rare plant conservation
Liessa Thomas, M.S. (US):
Conserving California's rare plants
Coalition for the Environment (St. Louis) Robert McHale, M.S. (US): Developing white paper on illegal toxic burnings in cement kilns in Missouri
Conservation International
Jaqueline Goerck, Ph.D. (Brazil):
RAP in Ecuador, transcribing notes of Theodore A. Parker III into
an accessible database
Carlos Reynel, Ph.D. (Peru): Member of RAP team visit to Tambopata
Monica Romo, Ph.D. (Peru): Member of RAP team visit to Tambopata
Monica Romo, Ph.D. (Peru) Established conservation plan for Madre de Dios region, Peru
Dresden Zoo- Germany, Atlantic Forests (Brazil)
Joline Lalime, M.S. (Australia):
Conserving the endangered red-tailed parrot
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago
Jorge Perez-Eman, Ph.D. (Venezuela):
Conserving biodiversity
Institute of Tropical Forestry,
US Forest Service, Puerto Rico
Silvio Marchini, Ph.D. (Brazil):
Sustainable use of tropical forests
Inter-American Development Bank
(Washington, DC)
Carlos Reynel, Ph.D. (Peru):
Program evaluation & development, Environmental Division
Maryville University
Tony Piccinni, M.S. (US)
Role of the teacher in environmental education in a traditional classroom
Missouri Botanical Garden
Trish Distler, M.S. (US)
Developing methods to conserve germplasm of rare plants
M. Carolina Israel, M.S. (Peru) Research internship with Ericaceae-Colombia project
Karen Meldrum, M.S. (US) Recovery of Dr. Alwyn Gentry's temperate plot data
Missouri Department
of Natural Resources
Kevin Cool, M.S. (US)
GIS coverage mapping of Cuivre River State Park
National Herbarium of Malawi
Zacharia Magombo, Ph.D. (Malawi)
Native forest regeneration on Ulumba Mountain, southern Malawi
National Institutes
of Biodiversity (INBio) (Costa Rica)
Raul Medina, M.S. (Peru)
Cataloging biodiversity for Coleoptera subgenus (Erwin)
Alvero Herrera, M.S. (Costa Rica)
Conservation application of GIS
National Museums of Kenya
O'Kongo Akura, M.S. (Kenya)
Curriculum development of medicinal plant use in Kenya
The Nature Conservancy
Sandra Arango, Ph.D. (Colombia)
Developing conservation priorities for Choco region of Colombia
Gabriel Picon, M.S. (Venezuela)
Using GIS to establish conservation priorities in the Gran Sabana,
Venezuela
Office of Surface Mining, US Department of
Interior
Leonard Meier, M.S. (US)
Bat conservation
PACA & Simon Bolivar Zoo (Costa Rica)
Patricia McDaniel, M.S. (US)
D
evelopment of an Environmental education program for Zona Norte on
primates and tropical forests
Saint Louis Zoo
Carolina Valdespino, Ph.D. (Mexico)
Captive breeding, reproduction and conservation of the Fennec Fox
Anne Bolte, M.S. (US)
Endangered species management
Bruce Read, Ph.D. (US)
Coordinate and co-teach conservation courses applicable to zoo community
and captive breeding centers
Sierra Club, Local Chapter,
Missouri
Daniel Kasten, M.S. (US)
Influencing and educating policy-makers
Smithsonian
Institution
Gerardo Aymard, M.S. (Venezuela)
Conducting biodiversity inventories and establishing protocols for
biodiversity research
Gilbert Barrantes, Ph.D. (Costa Rica)
Curation and maintenance of biodiversity collections
Nidia Cuello, M.S. (Venezuela)
Development of GIS vegetation maps for new Venezuelan park
Sonia Sandoval, M.S. (Ecuador)
Cataloging biodiversity (Wilson, Erwin)
Southeastern Louisiana University Research Team
Tibisay Escalona, Ph.D. (Venezuela)
Field research with endangered yellow-blotched map turtle
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
Carol Langner, M.S. (US)
Endangered mammals of Kaiparowits Plateau
US Peace Corps, Costa Rica
Greg Basco, Ph.D. (US)
Natural forest management
USDI-National Biological Survey
Jose G. Tello, M.S. (Peru)
Using natural history collections to answer evolutionary and biogeography
questions: a case study with Pipridae
University of Leicester
Michelle Crehshaw, M.S. (US)
Wetland ecology of Lake Naivasha, Kenya (Harper)
The Wolf Sanctuary (St. Louis)
P. Christie Hohnson, M.S. (US)
Captive breeding of endangered red wolf
The World Bank (Washington,
DC)
Guillermo Paz y Miño
Setting priorities of GEF funding, preperation of white paper in conjuction
with NGOs
World Bird
Sanctuary
Tamsen Rizzardo, M.S. (US)
Education program
World Wildlife Fund (Washington,
DC)
Luis Miguel Renjifo, Ph.D. (Colombia)
Developing conservation priorities - Hispanic South American program
Pedro Lopez Valencia, M.S. (Colombia)
Conservation science program; NGOs respones to priority setting for
GEF funding (Hartshorn, Dinerstein)