Wendy Collinson-Jonker

Wendy Collinson-Jonker is the Project Manager for the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s Wildlife and Transport Program where she is driving initiatives that address the now-recognised threat of linear infrastructure (namely, roads , runways and railways) in South Africa.

She sits on several international committees, the Global Congress for Linear Infrastructure and Environment (GCLIE), the Transportation Research Board (TRB; USA) and the IUCN’s Transport Working Group, the International Conference for Ecology and Transportation (USA), the European-based Infra Eco Network Europe (IENE) and Scientific Expert Committees (Europe), to provide support and showcase southern African linear ecology research.

She is also a consulting research member of the South African Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL).

Megan Parker

Megan Parker is Conservation Project Director for Center for Large Landscape Conservation, in Montana, U.S., where she works as a conservation scientist focused on ecological connectivity related to linear infrastructure in Asia and Africa.

Megan’s career includes co-founding Working Dogs for Conservation, where she led research to train and deploy dogs to non-invasively detect endangered species and invasive plants and animals, illegally trafficked wildlife and identify animals with zoonotic disease.

She worked on conservation projects with dogs in Africa, Asia and North, Central and South America.

She conducted doctorate research in the Okavango Delta of Botswana on behavioral ecology and chemistry of African wild dogs, where she developed a respect and love for working on conservation issues in Africa. She assisted in the reintroduction of wolves to Idaho and on falcons in Tikal National Park in Guatemala, where she learned to climb tall trees and appreciate tropical forests.

Fernanda Z. Teixeira

Fernanda Z. Teixeira is a postdoctoral researcher in the Ecology Department at Federal University of the Rio Grande do Sul State (UFRGS) in Brazil, a member of the Road and Railway Ecology Research Group (NERF/UFRGS), and a member of the steering committee of the Latin American and Caribbean Transport Working Group (LACTWG/IUCN).

Fernanda’s research interests combine applied ecology, landscape ecology, ecology of vertebrates and conservation biology. Her research addresses the effects of roads, railways and other infrastructure on wildlife, with a special focus on road and railway mortality and connectivity loss.

She’s particularly interested in developing tools and strategies to improve the quality and effectiveness of environmental impact assessments and in the implementation of evidence-based conservation actions.

Yun Wang

Dr. Yun Wang is a research professor at the Chinese Academy of Transportation Sciences (CATS). He obtained his PhD from Chinese Academy of Sciences in road, landscape and ecological protection in 2007.

In 2005, he translated Road Ecology: Science and Solution by Richard Forman into Chinese and in 2009, he co-wrote Road Ecology in China.

In 2021 and 2022, as one of key members, he initiated 1st Asia Transportation Ecology Forum and 1st Asia-Europe Transportation Ecology.

Now his research focus on the interactions of roads and wildlife, landscape fragmentation and transport ecology.

Chris Slesar

Chris Slesar is the Environmental Resources Coordinator at the Vermont Agency of Transportation in the northeastern US.

Slesar is the Chair of the Steering Committee – and co-host – for the 2023 International Conference on Ecology and Transportation. He is also one of the Founding Steering Committee members for the Northeastern Transportation and Wildlife Conference and is a member of the Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Scientific Advisory Group.

At VTrans Slesar works closely with the staff biologists, archaeologists, and architectural historians and focuses on habitat connectivity issues in Vermont.  He has helped with the implementation of several wildlife crossing projects throughout the state.

Elke Hahn

Elke Hahn, working as an EIA coordinator in the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology in Vienna, Austria.

She is working in several expert groups on the creation of guidelines and codes of best-practice in Austria. She represents the Ministry in international working groups in CEDR and PIARC.

She is chair of the Governance Board of IENE.

Fraser Shilling

Fraser Shilling is director of the Road Ecology Center at the University of California, Davis. He received his PhD from the University of Southern California in ecology.

His research focuses on the interaction between transportation and natural and human systems. This includes impacts of traffic to wildlife connectivity, mortality, and behavior. He also investigates and designs solutions to these impacts, including wildlife-responsive crossing design and decision-support for crossing locations. Conversely, he and the Center also studies impacts to coastal infrastructure from anthropogenic sea level rise, nature biting back. In both arenas, he encourages institutional planning that is sensitive to nature’s needs and processes.

The Center provides educational opportunities to high school, undergraduate, and graduate students in everything from the application of artificial intelligence to studying wildlife behavior in the field. His favorite color is purple, his favorite food group is chocolate and his favorite animal is his dog Poppy.

Lucy Waruingi

Lucy Waruingi is the Executive Director of the African Conservation Centre (ACC) a Kenyan-based NGO working in the East African savannahs for over 30 years. ACC’s aim is to conserve large open landscape linking knowledge, biodiversity and human wellbeing through programs that are anchored in cutting edge research, integrating local knowledge to innovative land governance approaches, and in initiatives that enhance local livelihoods in rich biodiversity areas especially in Kenya and Tanzania.

Under her leadership, ACC has established itself as a conservation and knowledge hub for coordinating collaborative research & biodiversity assessments, promoting tools and skills that support effective conservation actions, promote community led conservation initiatives that result in resilient and productive ecosystem .

Lucy comes from the field of GIS & Remote sensing and has over 20 years experience in mainstreaming science and biodiversity data, information and knowledge to influence natural resource management planning, decision making and action at local, national and global levels. Lucy co-ordinated the development of Kenya’s first Biodiversity Atlas and she has been the Kenyan Co-PI to a global initiative – DCP (Development Conservation Partnerships) to assess the impacts of infrastructure on Biodiversity and livelihoods in East Africa.

Mattheuns D. Pretorius

Mattheuns (Matt) Pretorius is a project manager with the Wildlife and Energy Programme (WEP) of The Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), South Africa. Matt studied nature conservation at the Tshwane University of Technology, where he obtained a masters degree in 2019.

He started his career as a junior field officer with the EWT’s Birds of Prey Programme in 2011, moving to WEP in 2014 as a senior field officer and then a project manager. In this role he conducts various research projects focused on avian protection from overhead power lines.

These include projects that test new mitigation measures, and how certain threatened species respond to these measures.

Matt is also the chief drone pilot for the EWT, flying various conservation missions under its RPAS Operating Certificate.

Manisha Bhardwaj

Manisha Bhardwaj is a wildlife ecologist, motivated to identify and mitigate the impacts of the built environment on wildlife.

She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Freiburg, Germany, where she is investigating human-wildlife interactions, and striving to create landscapes in which humans and wildlife can coexist.

She completed her PhD in 2018, at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where she evaluated the impacts of roads on insectivorous bats.

Ali Halajian

Has Veterinary medicine degree and PhD in Veterinary Parasitology. After research visits to Bulgaria and Italy, he joined University of Limpopo, South Africa, first as Post doctoral fellow (2011-2015) and then senior researcher at DSI-NRF SARChI chair in Ecosystem Health (2016-2019) also technical expert at Bayer animal health and Elanco Animal Health (2020-2022).

He is currently research associate at University of Limpopo and part time Professor at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University.
He has authored/co-authored 105 peer-reviewed journal publications and has presented at various national/international conferences. He has contributed to the field of parasitology and science as a whole, having described 13 new species of parasites, 9 from South Africa, and supervising students.

In 2015, the University of Limpopo awarded him the Best Overall Upcoming Researcher of the university and in 2018 as the Best Established Researcher in the School of Molecular and Life Sciences.
Beside all academic research, he loves science communication and has been involved with various activities like managing a volunteering program at SARChI parasitology laboratory (University of Limpopo), giving science presentations at local schools, using science art as a platform of teaching at schools, science talks at a local community radio, judging at science fairs (e.g. Tritech, Eskom expo), mentoring students & pupils (e.g. GreenMatter, ISOHA One health, Sizanani Mentorship programme) and farmers, and being active in local NGOs (e.g. FrOHG).

His fields of interest are one health (currently involved with ELEPHANT one health project South Africa), animal health and zoonotic diseases. In his works on one health in South Africa, he tried to use roadkill animals and look at impacts of roads on health. He believes there is a need for much more works on road ecology and one health interactions.
His main hobbies are science communication, volunteering and social media management.

Bibi Linden

Bibi studied Biology at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg (Germany) were she specialised in Tropical Biology and Animal Ecology.

She’s been living in South Africa since 2006, where she has focused her research on primate conservation and behavioural ecology in fragmented landscapes.

Bibi worked in various academic and educational positions (Environmental Educator (Sumbandila Scholarship Trust), Part-Time Lecturer in Conservation Biology (University of Venda), Academic Programme Manager (Lajuma Research Centre)) and is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Venda.

She has been involved in the field of linear infrastructure ecology since 2016, investigating impacts on and mitigation strategies for South Africa’s primate fauna.

Thabo Hlatshwayo

Thabo Hlatshwayo is working for the Wildlife and Transport Programme at the Endangered Wildlife Trust and spends most of his time in the field gathering roadkill data or training route patrollers on how to utilise a scientific protocol to collect roadkill data on South African highways.

Thabo is also undertaking his doctoral studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa where he is researching on wildlife utilisation of road underpass structures.

Josie Stokes

Josie Stokes has over 20 years’ applied experience in Road Ecology, with a particular focus on mitigating the impacts of linear infrastructure on Australia’s iconic threatened species such as the Koala and Tasmanian Devil. 

Josie is on the Steering Committee of the Australasian Network for Ecology and Transportation (ANET).

Josie is also the curator of the Instagram page @frog_friday which raises awareness of amphibian declines and conservation actions worldwide.

Stellah Ndiwa

Stellah Ndiwa is a Senior Environment Officer for Kenya Railways in Nairobi. Since 2016, Ms. Ndiwa has worked with Kenya Railways during the implementation of the Standard Gauge Railway (Phase 1 & 2A).

Ms. Ndiwa holds a BSc in Environmental Sciences from Egerton University, Kenya; an MSc in Occupational Safety and Health from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology and currently undertaking a Ph.D. in Climate Change and Adaptation at the University of Nairobi.

With training in Environmental Sciences and as a registered Lead EIA Expert, she is keen to promote meaningful stakeholder engagement to achieve environmental protection, sustainable development, biodiversity conversation, and capacity building.

Being in the development sector, Ms. Ndiwa’s interests revolve around influencing the development-conservation discourse, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, to achieve ecologically sustainable development and to address the gaps that exist in addressing policy discourse on infrastructure development.

Tobias Nyumba

Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department o Envieonment and Geography, University of York.

Tobias is currently an Associate Director for the Dakota Wesleyan University, USA in Nairobi, Associate at the University of Nairobi’s Institute for Climate Change and Adaptation, a member of the IUCN’s World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and an Advisory Panel Member for the Conservation Evidence’s Mammal Synopsys, University of Cambridge