The Society for Conservation Biology is excited to announce the results of its 2017 Board of Governors Election.
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Eight candidates ran for seats on the Society's global board of directors. Top right to left: Dominick DellaSala, Adina Merenlender, Meredith Gore, and Brooke Porter. Bottom: Marit Wilkerson, Heather DeCaluwe, Israel Borokini, and Kevin Njabo. |
SCB members voted for Adina Merenlender as President-Elect, Marit Wilkerson as Secretary, Heather DeCaluwe as Treasurer, and Kevin Njabo as Vice President of Membership.
President-Elect Adina Merenlender (University of California, Berkeley) is a former board member of SCB’s North America Section and past chair of the SCB Chapters Committee. She is on the editorial board of Conservation Biology and is a member of the SCB Publications Committee.
Adina hopes to focus on increasing SCB’s engagement with people who do conservation practice on the ground and to work with SCB’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee to engage more people who are not currently represented in environmental science in SCB. She also hopes to work with SCB’s new Executive Director on financial sustainability at the Global, Section and Chapter level.
Adina hopes to focus on increasing SCB’s engagement with people who do conservation practice on the ground and to work with SCB’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee to engage more people who are not currently represented in environmental science in SCB. She also hopes to work with SCB’s new Executive Director on financial sustainability at the Global, Section and Chapter level.
Board Secretary Marit Wilkerson (United States Agency for International Development, University of California, Davis) came to SCB in 2007 as a grassroots Chapter member. As a longtime volunteer leader, Marit has experience at all levels of SCB. She is an officer on the Global Chapters Committee and has served on the NACCB 2012 Planning Committee and the ICCB-ECCB 2015 Scientific Committee. She is a founding member of SCB’s Urban Ecology Working Group and the interim Secretary on the SCB Global Board, a position she was appointed to in late 2015.
Heather DeCaluwe (Consultant) served as Treasurer on the Board before stepping aside in August 2016 to serve as the Society’s interim director where she has dedicated her energy to facilitating a smooth transition for SCB as the Society prepares to hire a new executive director. As interim director, Heather has played a key stabilizing role for the Society, leading the Executive Office staff and serving on the search committee for the Society’s next Executive Director. She is the former Assistant Director of SCB.
Kevin Njabo (Biologist, University of California, Los Angeles) is a former member of the SCB Africa Section board of directors and president of the SCB Cameroon Chapter. Kevin hopes to make SCB attractive to people from different spheres – scientists and non-scientists. “We need to involve non-scientists into our business,” he said. “We need to understand the language of lawyers, policy makers, social scientists and speak in a language that will be attractive enough to transform our results to practical policies.”
Congratulations to the winners! Terms of service will begin on 1 July 2017.
SCB is grateful to all of the candidates who participated in the election and for their dedication to SCB and to our mission. We look forward to their continued leadership and contributions to SCB.
The Society is thankful for all of the members who voted in the election. Your vote is a strong and essential voice in our international community of conservation professionals and students.
Finally, SCB is grateful to former President Paul Beier, who stepped in to lead the Governance Committee to facilitate the Society’s 2017 Board of Directors Election.