Thirza Loffeld (She/Her)

Established leadership and engagement specialist from the world’s leading leadership organizations with global experience in strategy, program development, constituent engagement, impact, operations, mentorship and membership development. Looking to return to my roots in conservation...

I am a professor at the State University of Santa Cruz - Bahia - Brazil. As a veterinarian I work in the health context and lately I have admired the area of Unique Health, Ecosystem Health and Conservation Medicine. I am currently involved in research related to zoonotic diseases, including arboviruses, and also research in the area of animal welfare, biosafety and anesthesiology. In 2018, we founded the Wild Animal Care and Research Center (NAPAS), linked to the Veterinary Hospital of the University. In this space we are responsible for improving and maintaining the health status of wild animals in the southern region of the state of Bahia. We have a team made up of undergraduate and graduate students, in addition to specialists from the most varied areas of Veterinary Medicine.

I am Marjan Maria, a young and ambitious wildlife biologist also a proud mom to a baby girl from Bangladesh. I am passionate about conserving the biodiversity of my country and protecting its endangered species. I am particularly interested in the behavioral ecology of primates and herpetofauna. I have researched the Bengal slow loris, Phayre's langur, hoolock gibbon, and other endangered species in Bangladesh. I have also worked on developing conservation strategies for these species. I am also interested in the impacts of road infrastructure on wildlife. I am currently working on a project to study roadkill in primates and other animals in Bangladesh. I believe that wildlife conservation is essential for our planet's health and future generations' well-being. I am committed to working to protect the biodiversity of Bangladesh and to ensure that its wildlife can thrive for generations to come. I am eager to learn and grow. I am passionate about making a difference in the world. I am grateful for the opportunity to work in wildlife conservation and I am excited to see what the future holds. 

Primate researcher working on macaques. I am interested in social behaviour and anthropogenic drivers of behavioral change in macaques. My PhD focused on social behaviour in Nicobar long tailed macaques. I m currently working as a faculty in an arts and design college where I bring in the aspects of coexistence through arts and design.  I am seeking collaborative opportunities to further my research on macaques. 

I started my conservation career as a researcher/author for the Arkive online natural world encyclopedia, before managing the Wildscreen Exchange project which gives 350+ organisations across the world access to free photographs and videos for their communications. From working on this project, I developed a keen interest in conservation communications and began researching impact and technique. I also ran the public section of the Wildscreen Festival, Witness the Wild, which is an event programme that includes a travelling bicycle-powered wildlife film cinema, the world's largest recycled and recyclable photography exhibition, and a nature-themed street art gallery. Since then, I have been running my own conservation communications business, Song and Dance Communications, but split my time 50/50 between this and field work, which mostly centres around ecosystem restoration and short-term contracts in the ecotourism industry. I also produce a seldom updated blog, which I hope to spend more time on at some point in the not-too-distant future!

Wildlife Veterinarian with a passion for Wildlife Population Health and a particular interest in infectious diseases of One Health significance. 

I’m associate researcher in Ecology and sustainable use of natural resources, passionate about biodiversity conservation. I’m also a young leader, environmental activist and member of Togolese Society for Nature Conservation (AGBO-ZEGUE NGO), funder of Togo Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN-TOGO) and coordinator of Ecologie Universelle NGO. With over five years' experience in youth environmental engagement, I holds a master's degree in Ecology and Wildlife Resource Management from the University of Lomé. For the past four years, I has been defending environmental protection rights, in particular the conservation of Biodiversity, by organizing training sessions, mass awareness-raising, conference-debates for communities, especially young people, and field research activities.  Indeed, since 2019, I have started to carry out research work on biodiversity management and conservation. I participated in several field research activities on different zoological groups (reptiles, amphibians, mammals and birds) under the supervision of Dr. Gabriel Hoinsoudé SEGNIAGBETO, full professor and deputy director of the Laboratory of Ecology and Ecotoxicology (LaEE) at the University of Lomé. I’m also working on several conservation projects for the NGO AGBO-ZEGUE in Togo on natural resources management (mangroves, protected areas, reptiles, amphibian’s conservation and especially marine mammals and sea turtles monitoring in Togo). Since 2021, I'm been a staff member of AGBO-ZEGUE NGO. This new experience enabled me to take up the position of program manager for ecological monitoring of marine turtles from September 1, 2022 to date. Over the past two years, I have worked with specialists in zoology, epidemiology, host and symbiont biology and eco-immunology from Chicago and California to carry out research on Togolese fauna.