Jennie Duberstein
Jennie Duberstein coordinates the Sonoran Joint Venture, an international partnership for bird and habitat conservation in the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. She is a wildlife biologist and conservation social scientist who has spent her professional career working to build partnerships for bird and habitat conservation across the United States and northwest Mexico. Jennie has directed environmental education programs, developed community-based conservation projects in the U.S.-Mexico border region, developed and taught courses and workshops on bird identification, ecotourism, and bird monitoring, and has studied species including Double-crested Cormorant and wading birds in Sonora and Yellow-billed Cuckoos in Arizona. She has also worked with young birders for many years, directing field courses, summer camps, and conferences, and generally helping to connect young birders with opportunities and each other. Jennie received her B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Virginia Tech and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Arizona’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment.
Ruth has served as the VA Dept. of Wildlife Resources’ coastal nongame biologist since 2001. She is based on the Eastern Shore of VA and her area of responsibility includes the lower Delmarva Peninsula and adjacent seaward marshes and barrier islands as well the waters, shorelines, islands and major tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. Her work focuses primarily on all aspects of nongame waterbird (i.e., shorebirds, seabirds and long-legged wading birds) conservation, research, monitoring and management. Ruth became involved with the AKN by way of the Atlantic Flyway Council which provided funds under three separate contracts to: (1) create a colonial waterbird (CWB) extension in which to enter, store and analyze historical, recent and future CWB data; (2) upload all records in the USGS CWB database into the CWB extension; (3) develop analytical and visualization tools for the extension; and (4) develop and offer training tools and webinars for data users and contributors.
John Alexander, Klamath Bird Observatory Executive Director, has been an AKN collaborator since its inception. Dr. Alexander has been working to integrate bird conservation with natural resource management in the Pacific Northwest since 1992. He is focused on applying bird conservation science as a tool for advancing ecosystem conservation regionally, nationally, and internationally. His expertise includes participatory action research; ecological monitoring and research using standard bird and habitat sampling techniques; the use of scientific results for overcoming land stewardship challenges; and the development of applied science tools and teaching materials for natural resource management professionals, community members, and students of all ages. John’s KBO team manages the Avian Knowledge Northwest regional AKN portal, as well as the eBird Northwest portal. John represents the AKN on the North American Bird Conservation Initiative US Committee.
Elizabeth Neipert chairs the AKN Steering Committee, the primary decision- making body for the AKN, committed to fostering the international collaboration of diverse institutions and agencies with goals to improve the conservation of birds and their habitats utilizing scientific data and cooperative partnerships. She also represents DoD and leads the federal agency partnership, coordinating plans and actions with the over 100 AKN partner organizations.