Board of Directors
Lou Ann Dietz
President and Founding Director
Lou Ann is an Educator specializing in helping conservation teams in Brazil achieve lasting impact. more>
James M. Dietz
Vice President and Founding Director
Jim Dietz is a conservation biologist who spent over 40 years doing research on, and contributing to policy for the management of endangered species and priority habitat in Brazil. more>
M. Inês Castro
Treasurer and Founding Director
Inês is a Biologist with forty years of experience working on conservation projects. more>
Benjamin B. Beck
Founding Director
Ben is currently consulting, teaching and writing, having served as Director of Conservation of the Great Ape Trust and coordinator of the Gishwati Area Conservation Program in Rwanda until the end of 2011. more>
Jennifer Mickelberg
Director
Jennifer was the Vice President of Collections and Conservation at Zoo Atlanta, where she oversees all aspects of the animal collection and leads conservation initiatives. She was also the International Studbook Keeper for GLTs and Species Survival Plan Coordinator, managing the captive breeding program throughout the world. more>
For more information about donating in honor of Dr. Jennifer Mickelberg, please click here.
Nancy de Moraes
Director
Nancy retired from World Wildlife Fund where she worked for 19 years as a Program Officer in the Latin America Program providing management support to WWF’s initiatives in a number of South American countries. more>
Karen L. Bonnin, Esquire
Board Member
Karen is a retired attorney practicing in Maryland. She received her BS degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1964. After relocating to Maryland, she worked on a federal grant as a member of a research team evaluating the District of Columbia Public School System. more>
Kenton Kerns
Board Member
Kenton’s passion for golden lion tamarins was sparked when he volunteered with the Smithsonian’s National Zoo’s golden lion tamarin Free Range Program. Kenton continues to work with GLTs as a Curator at the National Zoo. He also serves as the International Studbook Keeper for GLTs. more>
Toni K Allen
Board Member
Since retiring from the private practice of law, Toni has spent of her time volunteering. Her devotion to the golden lion tamarin began in 2001 when she became a behavior watcher in the National Zoo’s GLT free-range program. more>
Christine Engels
Secretary & Board Member
Christine is a conservation biologist whose lifelong love for the golden lion tamarins began while researching their behavior and vocalizations at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and the Department of Zoological Research. more>
Kara Arundel
Board Member
Kara has been a career journalist, working for newspapers in Virginia and Florida and then as a reporter covering national special education issues for an online publication. Kara’s connection to primate conservation began when she researched the history of gorillas at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., as well as researching the zoo’s journey into better animal management practices. more>
Andrew J. Baker
Board Member
After graduating from Stanford University, Andy began his involvement with golden lion tamarins as a keeper at the Los Angeles Zoo, and that influenced the rest of his professional career. more>
Moira Tamayo
Board Member
Moira is a marketing executive who has worked in the US and Latin America. Among other positions, Moira was vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean at Western Union, senior vice president at FIS/Worldpay, and head of US marketing and of global product marketing for Amazon Payments. more>
Special Advisors
Jon Ballou
Special Advisor
Until his retirement in 2015, Dr. Jonathan Ballou was Population Manager and Research Scientist at the Smithsonian Institution's Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, DC. He was also an adjunct member of the Faculty of the University of Maryland. His research has focused on the genetic and demographic problems confronted by small populations, especially of threatened and endangered species. more>
Fabiano Godoy
Special Advisor
Fabiano currently works at Conservation International (CI) as Technical Director for the Conservation Finance Division. In this role he advises CI’s field offices on the design and implementation of climate mitigation projects and sustainable landscape initiatives. more>
Advisors
Sara Hankerson
Advisor
Sarah Hankerson has been studying the behavioral ecology of primates for over twenty years. She has studied primates in zoos and in their native habitats. Sarah is currently an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, USA. more>