Hall Of Fame

Janet Maclean earned her MSc with Jake and Roy Turkington through the University of British Columbia in 2012 and is now a PhD student at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. Janet’s work demonstrated a heretofore unappreciated and (dare we state) pretty darned cool phenomenon: seed and seedling consumption by rodents had effects comparable to those of large ungulates on the demography of a monodominant savanna tree. Chalk one up for the charismatic microfauna!

During his tenure at UW, Jesse worked tirelessly to raise awareness for several of life’s underappreciated gems, including (but certainly not limited to) Billy Joe Shaver live albums, delicioso homegrown rabbits, and outside trap pull blocks. And we would be remiss to not mention his clutch spotting a P. pardus outside the Aberdare Wandare gate, providing good clean fun for one and all.

Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Arizona

Current position: PhD Student, Ohio University

Current position: Biological Technician, US Forest Service

Current position: Outreach Coordinator and Research Scientist, University of Wyoming's Haub School

I was born and raised in New Orleans, LA where I received my first bachelor's in biology from Southern University at New Orleans. Unlike most in the wildlife field, I did not grow up in the outdoors. Instead, I was a city kid that was always curious about the wonders of the natural world. During my time at UW, I had the opportunity to work on independent research linking skull morphometrics from museum and trapper-harvested specimens to sex and age ratios in marten populations. I love exploring national parks, hiking, snowshoeing, and skiing.

Saeideh Esmaeili truly is a rennaissance woman of southwest Asian mammals, working on goitered gazelle, Indian gazelle, sand cat, and Asiatic cheetah before completing a superb dissertation on the ecological and socio-economic correlates surrounding the migrations of a globally-endangered equid, the onager.

Channeling John Wayne (or Jeff Bridges, if you prefer), Saeideh personified true grit: she once navigated a financial transfer between five(!) countries to support the first GPS collaring effort of an ungulate in her home country of Iran. At a postdoc at Colorado State University, she now partners with the IUCN Equid Specialist Group, employing her talents in movement modeling to conserve equids across the globe.

Current position: Research Scientist, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University

Current position: Program Assistant, Mount Kenya Trust

Current position: PhD Student, Yale University

Stephen Kinyua was the inaugural project leader on the UHURU small-mammal sampling. Steve was advised by Jake and Paul Webala at Moi University and now serves as a Project Manager for Wildlife Cybercrime for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Current position: Project Manager, International Fund for Animal Welfare

Tobias Otieno earned his MSc in Wildlife Management at Moi University in Kenya, coadvised by Paul Webala and Jake, with lots of collaboration with Adam. Toby worked to understand how the perceived risk of predation affects diet selectivity of impala and Guenther's dik-dik, two abundant ungulates throughout Laikipia.

Current position: Research Manager, Ewaso Lions

Current position: Secretariat, Kenya Wetlands Forum, East African Wildlife Society