Asia Section Board of Directors

The Asia Section of the Society for Conservation Biology has an international following of members that support conservation in the Asian Region. The Board of Directors is an elected body that facilitates the goals and activities of the Section.

Current Members

Antony J. Lynam, PhD
President, SCB Asia Section
Conservationist, Wildlife Conservation Society, Center for Global Conservation

Tony Lynam is President of the SCB Asia Section and was first member of SCB in 1987. He completed a Ph.D at UC San Diego. Tony has worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society for 21 years. Based in Bangkok, Thailand, he works regionally in Asia and East Africa to train government and local NGO staff and help make protected areas more effective.
Member: IUCN Cat Specialist Group (2017-2020)
Website | LinkedIn |Reviews |Blog | Publications

Christie Lam, PhD
Vice President, Awards Liaison, SCB Asia Section

Christie is an associate professor in Osaka University and has obtained her PhD in Anthropology (2009) from the University of Adelaide, Australia. She is a social scientist working in the conservation field. She has been carrying out extensive research work on human-wildlife conflicts and the welfare impact of conservation-led displacement on local communities particularly in Nepal. She believes the inclusion of local communities is necessary for more effective conservation policies.

Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, Past President
University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus
Malaysia

Jennie Miller, PhD
Chief Financial Officer, SCB Asia Section
UC Berkeley / Panthera
USA/India

As CFO, Jennie manages the finances of the Asia Section. Jennie researches carnivore ecology and human-wildlife interactions in pursuit of decision support tools that enable people and carnivores to sustainably coexist. She has worked extensively in India on wildlife conservation, conducting field research for a Fulbright Scholarship on Himalayan pheasants and doctorate research on tiger and leopard depredation of livestock.
LinkedIn| Website

Ghazala Shahabuddin, PhD
Membership Liaison Officer, SCB Asia Section
Senior Scientist and Biodiversity Consultant,
Centre for Ecology, Development and Research (CEDAR), India

Ghazala has a PhD in Ecology and Conservation Biology from Duke University (1998). She has researched and published extensively on habitat fragmentation, land use change, avian ecology, community-based conservation and wildlife policy in South and South-East Asia. She has taught at Duke University and American University, and was an Associate Professor in Environmental Studies at Ambedkar University, Delhi, India from 2009 to 2014.
LinkedIn|Facebook|

Shermin de Silva, PhD
Communications Officer, SCB Asia Section
President & Founder, Trunks & Leaves Inc., Sri Lanka
Assistant Project Scientist, UC San Diego.

Shermin directs the Udawalawe Elephant Research Project, and is a Trustee of EFECT, in Sri Lanka. She studies all aspects of Asian elephant behavior and ecology, and the interface between elephants and people, with the aim of understanding how populations of large animals can survive alongside people.
Member: IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group.
Website|Blog| Google Scholar| LinkedIn|Twitter
Tenure ends in July 2018

Alice Catherine Hughes, PhD
Education and Training Liaison, Conference Liaison
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences
People's Republic of China

Alice is a conservationist based in China who works throughout Southeast Asia. Her research aims to better our understanding biodiversity's patterns and drivers of its change with to encourage more effective management and conservation. Supplementary to this, Alice leads capacity building across the Tropics and holds positions on the boards of a number of ecological societies and NGOs to help promote ecology and build ecological capacity across the global tropics, especially in Southeast Asia.

Natalia Huang, Chapters Liaison
Ecology Matters Pte Ltd
Singapore

Buuveibaatar Bayarbaatar, Elections Liaison
Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Wildlife Conservation Society
Mongolia

Hanyeh Ghaffari, Diversity Liaison, Asia Section
Assistant Professor, University of Kurdistan
Co-founder and Director, Pars Herpetologists Institute
Iran

Hanyeh Ghaffari has been one of the only two members of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group from Iran since 2004. Her professional interests encompass the fields of ecology and conservation of pond turtles and tortoises, especially the Euphrates Softshell turtle (Rafetus Euphraticus) in the Middle East. Hanyeh's research activities focus on the natural history and ecology of native and invasive reptiles and amphibians.
National Steering Committee member of the GEF Small Grants Programme - UNDP (since 2016).
Publications

Jeffrey A. McNeely, Policy Liaison,
Independent Consultant,
Thailand

Jeff has contributed to conservation in Asia since 1970. He spent 12 years between Thailand, Indonesia, and Nepal before going to IUCN in Switzerland and retired as Chief Scientist after 3 decades. He has written/edited almost 50 books and over 350 scientific papers and book chapters. He returned to Thailand in 2012 and worked with Asian Development Bank on the Greater Mekong Subregion's protected areas and serves as the policy advisor to Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.

Koustubh Sharma, Social Media Liaison
Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystems Protection Program
USA, India

Future Members

If you are interested in being a member of the Asia Board you must be a member of SCB and a member of the Section. Generally 2 to 4 board members are elected annually. The Call for Nominations goes out in September or October and the election runs in October or November. Each year Section members receive an email about the open positions and the start of the election process. For more information about getting involved with this board, please email the Asia Section Board.

Chief Financial Officer, SCB Asia Section