WCS Staff

Born and raised near Boston, Massachusetts, USA, Dale Miquelle received a BS from Yale University, a MS from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. from the University of Idaho. Dr. Miquelle spent a year working on the Tiger Ecology Project in Chitwan National Park, Nepal, which cemented his interest in both international conservation efforts and large carnivore research. Dr. Miquelle worked for 6 years studying wildlife in Alaska with the US Forest Service (as part of his Ph.D.) and two years training international students in wildlife research with the Smithsonian Institution before joining the Sikhote-Alin State Reserve and Hornocker Wildlife Institute’s Siberian Tiger Project, now part of WCS. Dr. Miquelle is the Country Director for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Russia Program, and coordinates research and conservation actions to protect large carnivores and the ecosystems upon which they depend, focusing mainly in Northeast Asia.

Lilian Painter completed her PhD in Liverpool University, United Kingdom in Behavioural Ecology, before starting work in the Greater Madidi-Tambopata Landscape. She is now director of the Bolivia country program. She has led the development of management plans over 2,300,000 hectares of proteceted areas in the landscape and promoted alliances to support conservation with a wide array on organizations from indigenous and peasant organizations, to local, regional and national state and private entities. She has been awarded a prize by the protected area service of Bolivia as the most important contribution to the protected area service from civil society.

Saw Htun served as Forest Range Officer in Forest Department from 1994 to 1999 after receiving his BSc (Forestry) in 1993. He completed his MSc in Environmental Management and Development at Australian National University, Australia in 2002, and then he joined WCS Myanmar Program. In WCS, he has been mainly involved in biological surveys, socioeconomic surveys, management planning, and monitoring on interventions and threats as a Coordinator in the Northern Forest Complex. In addition, he has contributed to monitoring on tiger and its prey under Tigers Forever Program. He is a member of Species Specialist Group for Asiatic Black Bear and Sun Bear of IUCN since 2005. He also participated in Asia Primate Redlisting Workshop in Cambodia in 2006 and Regional Planning Workshop for Wild Cattle Conservation in Vietnam in 2008. His main publication is "Saw Htun, 2006. 'The Status and Conservation of Bears in Myanmar' in K. Yamazaki (ed.), The 17th International Conference on Bear Research and Management, Japan Bear Network, Karuizawa, Japan. He also received Post Graduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practices at WildCRU, Oxford University in 2010.

Madhu is a Senior Advisor and Representative of WCS in Singapore. She has provided technical, strategic and programme development support for WCS country programmes across Asia. She has broad experience with international protected area and wildlife policy and has engaged extensively with conservation planning and regional-scale conservation prioritization. She serves as Advisor to the secretariat of the Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP), an IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) initiative to catalyze conservation action for Critically Endangered species in the ASEAN region that is led by the Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS). She has a Master’s and PhD degrees from Duke University and is currently an Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She has published scientific research on wildlife exploitation and trade, protected area effectiveness, human-wildlife conflict and community management of protected areas.

Oscar Loayza is an agronomist by profession with specialization in rural development in protected areas and specialty degree in human geography and methodologies for environmental and social research. It has started its activity as a researcher in South American camelids and precisely from its relationship with Vicuña 1996 has taken over as director of the National Wildlife Ulla Ulla , from which it has served more than 11 years working in areas protected from Bolivia as director Ulla Ulla- Apolobamba (1996-2001) and Madidi (2001-2004) and as Director of Planning National Service of Protected Areas ( 2004-2006). After a brief stint as head of Foundation Intercoopera issues Water and Biodiversity (2006-2007) , has initiated activities in WCS where he currently holds the position of deputy director of the conservation program of the great landscape Madidi - Tambopata and responsible coordination component of territorial management and protected areas

Robert Tizard is the Technical Advisor to the WCS Myanmar Program. He was born in Canada and grew up in Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1994 after studying geography and wildlife management. Within weeks of graduation he moved to Laos where he lived for over 10 years. During this period he has worked on birds, bats, tigers, elephants, ecotourism, protected areas and community land and natural resource issues. He has worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society on-and-off in Lao PDR, North Korea and Myanmar. In 2006 Rob moved to Myanmar where he currently works as the Technical Advisor to the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Myanmar Program. Much of his work focuses on land and natural resources issues with local communities especially with marginalized forest communities and increasingly with ethnic armies such as the Kachin and Karen as they work to end years of conflict.

Deo Kujirakwinja manages WCS's Eastern DR Congo Program with projects in Virunga and Kahuzi Biega national parks and the Itombwe and Misotshi-Kabogo massifs. With an MSC in conservation from the University of Cape Town he is also an ornithologist and specialist in hippo surveys.

Stacy Jupiter is the Melanesia Regional Director and Country Director for the Solomon Islands Program. She oversees the Wildlife Conservation Society's programs and projects in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. She specializes in community-based management, integrated land-sea management and coral reef ecology. Her Ph.D. is from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Stacy is based in Suva, Fiji and in 2019 was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Alex Diment has broad experience in conservation, and combines in-depth knowledge of community-based development and conservation, with technical expertise in ecological monitoring, and skills in project management, strategic planning and programme development. Alex has a degree in biology from Oxford and a doctorate in predator ecology from Sydney. He is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and active in the Society for Conservation Biology. He has lived and worked for many years in Southeast Asia, particularly Cambodia, as well as in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. He has a particular interest in the management of invasive predators, and a fondness for medium-sized carnivores.

Alexa Montefiore is the Senior Program Manager for the Americas. She works directly with the Rocky Mountain and Mesoamerica and Caribbean Programs. In this role, she supports strategic planning, partnership development, grants management, civic engagement, communications, facilitating work flow between field programs and NY, and serving as the regional lead for SMART projects. Alexa Montefiore initially joined WCS in 2013 as the Program Manager for the SMART Partnership, which is comprised of WCS, CITES MIKE, NCZ, GWC, FZS, Panthera, Peace Parks Foundation, WWF and ZSL. Prior to joining WCS, Alexa worked at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, focusing on a range of initiatives for social good, with the ultimate goal of helping people live happier, healthier, and safer lives. Alexa has experience with communications and marketing, specifically as it relates to executing traditional and social media relations, content development for a range of print and online materials, strategic planning, and managing and coordinating large teams. Alexa hopes to continue her quest to better society by cultivating innovative programs that make people think and act differently. Alexa also has a Master's Degree from NYU in Environmental Conservation.