INTERNATIONAL BIRD RESCUE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Development & Partnerships
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Al oversees Bird Rescue's strategic fundraising efforts, including seasonal campaigns, events, and corporate and foundational partnerships. He has more than a decade of non-profit experience inspiring constituents to care for nature and wildlife, and is honored to work alongside so many incredible benefactors to Bird Rescue's mission.
He comes to Bird Rescue from the world of nature education and urban parks administration on the east coast, having served at Mill River Collaborative in Connecticut, Central Park Conservancy in New York City, and as Executive Director at Darien Nature Center in Connecticut. He counts his time leading thousands of passionate volunteers in Central Park as a career highlight.
Al holds a Masters degree in Biology from Queens College and has worked on numerous bird-related projects throughout his academic career. He studied Bananaquit songs in Puerto Rico to assess the efficacy of bioacoustic recognition software, and compared corticosterone stress levels of birds in urban and semi-urban New York environments.
He enjoys exploring the big, beautiful world with his wife and son, going birding, and nerding out about Star Wars.
Andy Sullivan leads communications across P&G's North America Dish Care business, which includes brands such as Dawn & Cascade. He has spent the past 13 years at P&G, building brands including Tide, Pampers, Olay, Old Spice, Head & Shoulders and Gillette. Prior to joining P&G, Andy worked as a public relations and marketing agency consultant for global products and brands - developing clients' strategies via media relations, media training, social media, special events and reputation management. He has a Bachelor's degree from Xavier University in Ohio. His home is Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife Nikki and their two sons.
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- Conservation and Education Specialist
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- Member of the Board
- Principal Research Scientist in NVIDIA 's Human
Anjul Patney is a Principal Research Scientist in NVIDIA's Human Performance and Experience research group, currently based in Redmond, Washington. He conducts academic research in the areas of computer graphics, esports, machine learning, and virtual and augmented reality. Previously, he was a Research Scientist at Facebook Reality Labs (2019-2021) and a Senior Research Scientist in Real-Time Rendering at NVIDIA (2013-2019). He received his Ph.D. from UC Davis in 2013 and his Bachelors in Technology from IIT Delhi in 2007.
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- Communications & Marketing Associate
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- Senior Director of Response Services Regional Representative for Pacific Northwest & Canada
- Senior Director, Response Services Regional Representative, Alaska
Barbara is an internationally-experienced and recognized emergency response and management professional who received her B.S. in Biological Science from the University of Alaska. She has worked in oiled wildlife response, response management, and rehabilitation of aquatic animals over the course of 20 years and is certified in Federal Emergency Management.
Barbara has been Response Services Director at Bird Rescue since 1997 and has held the position of Bird Unit Deputy Leader in the Deepwater Horizon Spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010; the Incident Command Wildlife Coordinator for the Rena Spill in New Zealand in 2011; and has been the on-scene coordinator in numerous other national and international spill events.
Barbara has authored multiple papers on seabird rehabilitation and oil spill response. She has also presented at wildlife and other conferences nationally and internationally.
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- Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician II, Relief, SoCal
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- Wildlife Technician I, Relief, NorCal
Carmine joined MSRC in March 2017, having spent over 30 years with Exxon Mobil in various positions. Identifying low investment opportunities to broaden and deepen MSRC's customer base and maximize utilization of the company's assets have driven Carmine's initiatives at MSRC. To date, he has expanded MSRC's spill response capability across the Hawaiian Island chain, the U.S. Caribbean, the Great Lakes, and enhanced coverage throughout Southern California. Carmine has brought MSRC's Interior Program to market, offering inland OSRO coverage to upstream, midstream and downstream operators leveraging MSRC's STARs contractor model.
Prior to joining MSRC Carmine was the Exxon Mobil Corporation, Global Emergency Preparedness & Response Manager where he managed a global team of senior advisors that establish and support the process, tools, and training of Exxon Mobil businesses and joint ventures globally in the areas of emergency preparedness and response (EP&R).
From February 2011 through September 2015 he was seconded from Exxon Mobil to the Marine Well Containment Company as the Health, Safety, and Environment Officer, to build industry capability post Deepwater Horizon.
Prior to joining MWCC, Carmine was in several emergency preparedness and Security roles for ExxonMobil Development and Production Companies, and was both the Commercial Manager and Operations Manager for SeaRiver Maritime.
He sailed for several years and held a Masters License: Unlimited Tonnage and earned degrees from Texas A & M University and Texas Maritime Academy. He also served in the Naval Reserve.
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- Volunteer Programs Associate
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- Wildlife Technician I, Relief, SoCal
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- Senior Partner, Price Wittrock
Dave Wittrock is a retired tax CPA and attorney who practiced in Seattle and San Francisco, primarily serving early stage biotech and software companies.
He is past Chairman of the Audit Committee of California Micro Devices, a small cap public semiconductor manufacturer.
His former volunteer roles included: President of Financial Executives International, Silicon Valley Chapter; Founding Member of the Northwest Biotech Series; Treasurer of the Washington Software Association; and Treasurer and Board Member of the Hillsborough Concours d'Elegance Foundation.
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- Development Manager
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- Projects Specialist & Response Team
Dr. Maria Hartley is the global technical lead in Chevron's Center for Emergency Preparedness and Response and has been with Chevron since 2008. She is also the assistant lead of Chevron's Environmental Functional Team which is responsible for providing technical specialists to address environmental issues during potential oil spills and other emergencies. She developed and implemented Chevron's industry-leading environmental standards and processes worldwide, such as ESHIA (environmental, social, health impact assessment) and the Natural Resources Environmental Performance Standard, and led permitting initiatives for Chevron's major international capital projects. She advises on biodiversity and endangered species issues and advocacy. Maria also volunteered her expertise to the Red Cross assisting and supporting disaster assessment. Receiving both her Doctorate and Masters of ecology from Rice University, she is now an Adjunct Assistant Professor teaching Ecosystem Management at Rice, and elected member on the Board of Affiliates for the Professional Master's Program and on the Advisory Board of the School of Natural Sciences. Maria is a British citizen, currently residing in Houston, Texas.
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- Director of Research & Veterinary Science
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- Research Director at International BirdRescue
Dr. Rebecca Duerr is the clinical veterinarian and research director at International BirdRescue's two wildlife clinics in California. She completed her DVM, MPVM, and PhD degrees at UC Davis, with graduate work on the care of oiled Common Murres and on the nutritional energetics and physiology of Common Murres and Western Grebes. She co-edited the second edition of Hand-Rearing Birds, co-wrote the wild orphans section of Merck Veterinary Manual, just finished Seabird Medicine and Orphan Care chapters for a new textbook on wildlife medicine, and is slowly getting all her graduate papers from the intersection of seabird biology and clinical wildlife medicine published.
She serves on the Board of Directors of the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association and is a frequent lecturer at UC Davis on avian physiology and pediatrics.
Job Titles:
- Director of Finance and Administration
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Erika comes to Bird Rescue with 30 years of nonprofit finance and administration experience holding leadership positions in land trusts and other environmental nonprofit organizations. She has an MBA in Finance from Golden Gate University and a Bachelors in Natural Resource Management from Cornell University. With her passion for the environment combined with finance and nonprofit management skills, she makes a great fit for the team at Bird Rescue.
In her spare time, Erika enjoys kayaking, skiing, biking, hiking, reading, gardening and birdwatching (of course!)
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- Special Projects
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- Chief Executive Officer
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Bergeron thrives on inspiring people to take action by exposing them to the natural wonders all around us. JD is particularly passionate about birds as indicators of the health of nature.
JD joined International Bird Rescue as its Executive Director in 2015, an opportunity which allowed him to bring together his passion and work experience to benefit wild birds in a changing world. He values integrity, curiosity, and mindfulness in his leadership of more than 300 staff and volunteers in an organization advancing wildlife conservation through emergency response, rehabilitation, innovative research, and knowledge sharing with peers and the public. He was promoted to CEO in 2021.
Previously, JD served in progressive leadership roles in international development and founded Chooda, an incubator with the mission to help inspire change through outdoor adventures that engage individuals with world challenges. He specializes in organizational change, fundraising, team development, and public speaking.
JD received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington University in Saint Louis, but he counts his time in the Peace Corps, his international travels, and a month on Midway Atoll among a million albatrosses as the true lessons of his life.
JD Bergeron is fascinated by birds. After 20 years of non-profit leadership, JD brought his passion together with his work experience to become the Executive Director of International Bird Rescue, a nonprofit founded during a major oil spill to help affected wildlife. An unconventional problem solver, JD has redirected Bird Rescue's impressive track record of working over 230 oil spills to take on the many challenges wild waterbirds face today. JD leads by example, modeling qualities of integrity, mindfulness, and wonder for the team.
JD thrives on finding innovative ways to inspire others to take action. Moved by his time in the Peace Corps, the nonprofit startup Kiva, and his international travels, he founded a nonprofit incubator with the mission to help inspire change through outdoor adventures that engage individuals with world challenges.
A lifelong lover of nature, JD retreats to the outdoors to gain perspective and to soothe the soul. He counts his month among a million albatrosses on Midway Atoll as the experience of a lifetime. After the magic of Midway, JD returned to Bird Rescue with a renewed passion and commitment to protect the natural home of wildlife and ourselves. He lives with his husband and two rescue dogs in the San Francisco Bay Area. His interests include native plants, drawing, cycling, and volunteering as a Burning Man Ranger.
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- Senior Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician II, SoCal
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- Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician III, SoCal
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- Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician II, Relief, NorCal
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- Board Treasurer / Board Member since 2023
Joel Minamide is a regular volunteer at the Bird Rescue Los Angeles clinic and joined the Board in 2023. Previously, he was a Senior Vice President/Team Lead in the Special Assets Group at U.S. Bank and managed a West Coast portfolio of problem assets until his retirement in 2022. He was involved in the commercial bank lending business and finance industry for 40 years. Joel and his wife, Donna, both volunteer weekly at the L.A. clinic and are grateful to assist the expert staff members there. In past years, Joel served as a board member of a nursing home (Keiro HealthCare Services), an adult daycare facility, and a Japanese language school. After retiring from U.S. Bank, he created a specialized pruning enterprise to service residential and commercial owners of Japanese pine trees. Joel is also a drumset player (starting at age 10) and plays in several big band and traditional New Orleans-style jazz ensembles. He is a graduate of University of California, Santa Barbara.
Job Titles:
- Director of Operations
- Director of Operations Regional Representative
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Julie Skoglund received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from California State University Long Beach, and has worked for International Bird Rescue (Bird Rescue) since 2004. She spent seven years as the Rehabilitation Manager at Bird Rescue's Los Angeles Center, and eight years as the Operations Manager, and was promoted to the Director of Operations … Read more
Julie Skoglund received a Bachelor of Science in Biology from California State University Long Beach, and has worked for International Bird Rescue (Bird Rescue) since 2004. She spent seven years as the Rehabilitation Manager at Bird Rescue's Los Angeles Center, and eight years as the Operations Manager, and was promoted to the Director of Operations for Bird Rescue in 2020.
During her time with Bird Rescue, Julie has worked on over 20 spills, often in leadership positions, including the Deepwater Horizon Spill off the Gulf Coast in 2010, the Cosco Busan Spill in San Francisco Bay in 2007, the Rena Oil Spill in New Zealand in 2011, and the Mystery Goo Spill in San Francisco in 2015. She has participated in and contributed to multiple oil spill trainings and drill exercises, and has delivered extensive presentations and speeches at professional conferences and workshops related to oiled and non-oiled aquatic bird rescue and rehabilitation.
Julie's specialties include large-scale and individualized animal care management, emergency response, clinic staff training, and event management. She also has research experience, having been published on several occasions, and an extensive administrative background.
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- Development Coordinator
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- Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician I, SoCal
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- Wildlife Technician I, NorCal
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- Wildlife Center Manager, NorCal
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- Wildlife Center Manager, SoCal
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- Veterinarian, Relief, SoCal
Martha, a volunteer at International Bird Rescue's Cordelia wildlife center since 2013, is an avid bird watcher, hiker, and conservationist.
Martha can frequently be found combing the wild and scenic beaches of Point Reyes National Seashore completing bird and marine mammal surveys for Beach Watch, a NOAA shoreline monitoring program managed by the Greater Farallones Association. She is also a supporter of the John Muir Land Trust, first volunteering 30 years ago to assist its successful campaign to purchase Mt. Wanda, once owned by naturalist John Muir and now part of the John Muir National Historic Site.
A former journalist for a San Francisco-based newswire service and East Bay newspapers, Martha earned a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley in 1980. After raising two children with her husband in Martinez and spending years volunteering in their schools, she went on to work for the school district for more than a decade. She retired in 2020.
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- Alaska Regional Representative
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- Member of the Board
- Director of Brand Marketing at Universal Pictures
Nick Bockanic is the Director of Brand Marketing at Universal Pictures. In his role, Nick acts as the connective tissue externally and within NBCUniversal to convert Universal's films into multidisciplinary franchises that extend across a larger marketing flywheel inclusive of partnerships, sales, consumer products, gaming, and theme park attractions and integrations. In his filmmaker facing role, Nick also partners with Illumination, theatrical marketing, and creative executives to execute brand marketing campaigns that leverage Comcast NBCUniversal's Symphony-a collective brief at Comcast NBCUniversal that leverages the unequalled reach of the company's powerful portfolio of brands to amplify key business priorities.
Nick began his career at NBCUniversal in 2016 as a West Coast Page after finishing his MBA at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. Nick resides in Los Angeles, CA with his husband, dog and 2 cats. In his spare time enjoys hiking, running and tending to his too many plants.
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- Veterinarian, Relief, NorCal
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- President, Emergency Management & Safety Solutions Inc
Regina Phelps is an internationally recognized thought leader and expert in the field of crisis management, pandemic and continuity planning and exercise design. She is the founder of EMS Solutions Inc and since 1982, EMSS has provided consultation and speaking services to clients in five continents.
Ms. Phelps is frequent speaker at international continuity conferences and is consistently rated one of the top rated speakers in her field. She has spoken at every DRJ (both Spring & Fall) since 1998.
She is the author of four books, all four are available on Amazon:
• Crisis Management: How to Develop a Powerful Program
• Cyberbreach: What if your defenses fail? Designing an exercise to map a ready strategy
• Emergency Management Exercises: From Response to Recovery
• Emergency Management Exercises: From Response to Recovery Instructors Guide
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- Communications & IT Manager
- Communications and IT Lead
Russ manages the organization's technology systems and oversees communications. He started as a volunteer back in 1997 when he stepped up to solve some IT issues at the old bird center in Berkeley, CA. After a new modern facility was opened in Fairfield in the early 2000s, he was instrumental in helping implement the internet/telcom build out and also launched the organization's first website, blog, and live birdcams.
He comes from a communications background and for many years worked as a newspaper and magazine photojournalist and photo editor. Using his interest in storytelling, Russ helps communicate Bird Rescue's long held commitment to caring for water birds in crisis. His favorite social media platforms include Twitter and YouTube.
He has first hand experience with spill response having participated in events in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Arcata, and in Cape Town, South Africa - during the Treasure oil spill in 2000.
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- Engineer
- Member of the Board
Shah Selbe is an engineer, conservation technologist, and National Geographic Explorer that works with communities, NGOs, academia and developing countries to identify and deploy technologies that can help with their greatest conservation challenges. This includes low-cost observation platforms (conservation drones, acoustic sensors, open source dataloggers, satellite imagery tools, etc.) and better methods to share and manage the data gathered (using mobile technologies, crowdsourcing, web-based approaches).
Since 2009, Shah Selbe has been researching this intersection of technology and conservation with a focus on open source technology development. He founded the nonprofit technology development laboratory Conservify, with the mission to bring open source technologies into conservation and field science. Conservify's work has included water quality characterization in Peru's Boiling River, biodiversity protection in Botswana's Okavango Delta, tracking glacial melt in Canada's Banff National Park, understanding the behaviors of Congo's lowland gorillas, helping citizen scientists monitor water in the Amazon Rainforest, drone-based monitoring of Sri Lanka's blue whales, and many more diverse activities across the globe.
He also founded FieldKit, an open-source software and hardware platform (environmental sensors, app, and FieldKit.org website) that allows individuals and organizations to collect and share field-based research data and tell stories through interactive visualizations. FieldKit has been funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the National Geographic Society. FieldKit's work has been deployed across the globe, including large initiatives in the Amazon Rainforest and the Congo Basin. FieldKit's newest product line is an underwater water chemistry sonde that is available at a fraction of the cost of the proprietary solutions available on the market.
Shah is also a Nelson Institute Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Madison, a New England Aquarium Ocean Conservation Fellow, a PopTech Social Innovation Fellow, former National Geographic Society Fellow (2016-2019), Rolex Award Finalist, and sits on the Board of the International Bird Rescue. Before becoming a conservation technologist, Shah spent 10 years as a rocket scientist building and launching satellites with Boeing.
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- Facilities & Safety Coordinator, nor Cal
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- Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician III, NorCal
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- Projects Specialist & Relief Senior Wildlife Rehabilitation Technician II, NorCal
Tim Hayes is a senior manager in the oil and gas industry, working for 36 years with some of the biggest names in the business including ARCO and British Petroleum. He has dedicated his career to safety enhancement and improving logistics in high-level positions on both the West Coast and East Coast. He currently serves as Region Manager for Marathon Pipeline's Southern California assets. The majority of Tim's career has been dedicated to marine and pipeline operations. Tim holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from California State Polytechnic, Pomona. He spends much of his free time in and around the coastal waters of Southern and Northern California with his wife Erika and three adult children.
In addition to serving on the Board of Directors, Toni has been an active clinic volunteer at both International Bird Rescue's San Francisco Bay-Delta Wildlife Center and at WildCare in San Rafael, CA, since 2015. She started her career with Tiffany & Co. in 1980, and rose to the position of Director Business Sales from 1993 through 2009. Toni has a Bachelor's Degree from California State University - Long Beach. She lives in San Anselmo, CA.
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- Board Secretary / Paul Hastings LLP Board Member since 2021
- Chairman of the San Francisco Employment Law Department
Zach Hutton is the chair of the San Francisco Employment Law Department. His practice spans all aspects of employment law, including discrimination and harassment, family and medical leaves, and wage and hour issues. Mr. Hutton has successfully represented employers in numerous class and collective actions, agency investigations, individual plaintiff cases, and administrative hearings. He has tried cases to verdict, and secured early dismissal of individual and class claims.
Mr. Hutton co-chairs the firm's nationwide Wage and Hour practice group and has extensive experience in wage and hour litigation and advice work. He provides advice and compliance guidance on complex wage and hour issues to clients in a variety of industries, including technology, retail, financial services, staffing, hospitality, health care, and insurance.
Mr. Hutton received his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (magna cum laude) where he was a member of the Hastings Law Journal. During law school, he served as an extern to Justice Marvin R. Baxter of the California Supreme Court.