Roy C. Averill-Murray , Desert Tortoise Recovery Coordinator, Nevada Fish and Wildlife Office, Reno – Roy has been the Fish and Wildlife Service's Desert Tortoise Recovery Coordinator since December 2004. Roy earned his B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from Texas A&M University in 1990 and his M.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Science from the University of Arizona in 1993, where he completed his thesis on estimating density and abundance of desert tortoises in the Sonoran Desert. He worked for the Arizona Game and Fish Department as Desert Tortoise Coordinator from 1995 to 2002, where he directed the state's population monitoring program, conducted research on desert tortoise ecology, and co-chaired the Arizona Interagency Desert Tortoise Team. From 2002-2004, he served as Amphibians and Reptiles Program Manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. He has published 14 peer-reviewed scientific papers and book chapters on desert tortoises.
Linda Allison , Desert Tortoise Monitoring Coordinator, Nevada Fish and Wildlife Office, Reno – Linda has worked since 1996 in the field of design and analysis of studies for rare species. Before joining the Desert Tortoise Recovery Office in 2006, she worked for 10 years as the Nongame Statistician for the Arizona Game and Fish Department. She received her Bachelor's degree in Ecology and Evolution from the University of California, Berkeley, and then completed a Master's degree in Ecology at Arizona State University.
Catherine Darst , Desert Tortoise Recovery Biologist, Ventura Fish and Wildlife Office, Ventura , California – Catherine (Cat) completed a post-doctoral Presidential Management Fellowship with the Department of the Interior, where she worked in Washington D.C. in science policy and conservation biology. She received her Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior from the University of Texas, Austin, in 2006 with an emphasis in amphibian and reptile biology. She completed her undergraduate degrees in Ecology, Evolution, and English from the University of California, Davis. Cat has published her research in journals such as Nature, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , and The American Naturalist .
Kimberleigh J. Field , Desert Tortoise Recovery Biologist, Nevada Fish and Wildlife Office, Reno – Kim completed her B.S. in Biology from Montana State University in 1995. The following year, she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, to begin studying the desert tortoise. In 1999, she completed her M.S. at the University of Nevada-Reno where her studies were focused on the translocation of desert tortoises in southern Nevada. From 2000-2005, she was employed by the Arizona Game and Fish Department, first as a Ranid Frog Biologist, then as the Amphibians and Reptiles Conservation Planner for the state. In 2005, she returned to Nevada to become one of the founding members of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Desert Tortoise Recovery Office. Kim has published papers on various topics including conservation, genetics, disease, and physiology of reptiles and amphibians of the southwestern U.S.
Christine Owen Mullen , Desert Tortoise Recovery Biologist, Palm Desert Fish and Wildlife Office, Palm Desert, California – Chris holds bachelors degrees in Biological Sciences and Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a doctorate from the University of Nevada-Reno. She has been working with the Fish and Wildlife Service since 1993, beginning as a graduate student assisting in the development of the Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan and then as a biologist assisting private landowners to conserve endangered and at-risk species. In 2004, she was awarded a one-year secondment to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to develop an initiative on wildlife and vineyards and to confer with wine-grape growers from Europe, South Africa, and Australia. Chris also spent three years in the Pacific Islands working with private landowners to benefit native wildlife. She has now returned to the western deserts of the mainland U.S. to assist Federal and non-Federal landowners in their efforts to recover the desert tortoise. |
