Pat Foster-Turley is a wildlife biologist and biodiversity specialist with a PhD in zoology from the University of Florida and a MA in marine biology from San Francisco State University. For nearly a decade she led the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Otter Specialist Group and was the principle editor and architect of the Action Plan for Otter Survival that remains in effect today. For her PhD, Pat conducted fieldwork on otters and their fish and invertebrate prey in mangroves and rice fields of Southeast Asia and in museum collections around the world. Since 1993, Pat has worked with the United States Agency for International Development, including two years in Washington D.C., two years in Botswana and Tanzania, and a number of years of short term consulting work for various USAID missions around the world. Pat came to USAID from the zoo and aquarium profession, where, for eighteen years, she developed and directed the education and conservation departments of a large zoo and oceanarium, Marine World-Africa USA in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has also served as program officer for the White Oak Conservation Center and as the Howard Gilman Foundation’s liaison with the foundation-based Consultative Group on Biological Diversity.
Today, Pat is an adjunct faculty member of the Zoology Department of the University of Florida and at the Florida Museum of Natural History and works as an independent consultant for various international and domestic natural resources projects from her home in north Florida. Since 2005 Pat has been writing a weekly newpaper column on wildlife for the Nassau County News-Leader. Her consulting work includes leading or serving as a member on design, evaluation and assessment teams for various USAID natural resources projects in many countries in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, most recently, Nigeria, Serbia, Montenegro, Azerbaijan, and the Republic of Georgia.. She is also a competent technical writer and expert synthesizer of large amounts of natural resources related material into readable reports and proposals for a variety of audiences ranging from grant makers and government officials to the general public. Pat lives in Florida. Contact Pat at Pfosterturley@yahoo.com
