Vice President: Amanda Kamps

Amanda currently resides in Wausau, Wisconsin where she serves as the wildlife rehabilitation/captive wildlife liaison for the State of Wisconsin. She has a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology with minors in Captive Wildlife Management and Conservation Biology and a Master’s degree in Wildlife from the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point. Amanda discovered wildlife rehabilitation as an undergraduate student, and since then she has found numerous ways to stay involved in this field. She started as an intern one summer, which led to future internships, volunteering, and other employment opportunities in wildlife rehabilitation. In addition to wildlife rehabilitation, Amanda is particularly interested in studying wildlife health and disease. She strives to work within the wildlife rehabilitation community to promote networking and collaboration, encourage continuing education, and support research opportunities. She believes teamwork is an important key to success, and aspires to be a part of that team and encourage others to also promote and protect wildlife conservation. Amanda brings to the IWRC board her experience working with both a state agency and wildlife rehabilitators, and she will continue to encourage and support this collaboration.

Treasurer: Dani Nicholson

Dani was trained in bookkeeping and accounting in 1977. She has worked in wildlife rehabilitation since 2001. In addition, through her non-profit whose mission is education and advocacy for wildlife, she serves on an ad-hoc committee to modify the fish cleaning station in Avila Beach, as well as working on another committee to do the same in Morro Bay. Dani maintains an active 24 hour Hazwoper with OWCN and has worked on a few oil spills, and she is also on the Pacific Wildlife Care (PWC) Wash Team. Over the years, Dani’s washed hundreds of birds.

Dani has held multiple board positions at PWC and is now President of Willow Tree Wildlife. She currently serves on the Marine Mammal Center (Sausalito) Volunteer Council as the San Luis Obispo Satellite facility representative. She works with the Lafeber Company as a liaison to the wildlife community and travels to conferences several times per year, visiting wildlife groups while traveling. She also take every bit of education she can.

Brooke Durham

After building a career as a successful professional portrait artist (photography), Brooke Durham suffered a career-ending injury to her spine, with permanent nerve damage. Years of rehabilitation later, Brooke began volunteering large amounts of time with a large local wildlife rescue center, where she was able to forget her own physical pain as long as she was focused on helping these often-forgotten members of the animal community. 

 Working in a large wildlife rehab organization exposed Brooke to a huge variety of wildlife species (reptile, mammal, and avian) that call Southern California home. The most interesting, and fateful, of these animals were a pair of naturalized nestling wild Amazon parrot chicks. They were the inspiration for the establishment of SoCal Parrot – “A non-profit that exists to bridge the gap of care and consideration that naturalized parrots fall into because they are neither native wildlife nor truly domestic.” In 2017 Hurricane Harvey delivered a near-miss to the habitat of the last 2,500 or so remaining Green-cheeked (aka Red-crowned) Amazon parrots that call the Lower Rio Grande home, reiterating that the naturalized flocks of parrots in Southern California may one day soon serve as the genetic reservoir for this species.

In early 2017 Brooke was awarded the first new wildlife rehabilitation permit in the San Diego area in 25 years. She and her team are working hard to establish SoCal Wildlife to continue bridging gaps in care and consideration the field of wildlife rehabilitation. She considers her personal mission to be fostering better communication and collaboration within the field for the health and wellness of both wildlife rehabilitators and the animals we serve. 

Deborah Galle

Deborah serves on the Connecticut Wildlife Rehabilitators Association’s Board of Directors and is a Connecticut state certified Wildlife Rehabilitator. A published author and blogger, she has extensive philanthropic experience and BoardSource board governance and leadership training.

Her experience as a management professional includes, Communications Manager for Time Warner, Consultant for Gartner Inc., and Condé Nast Publications. She is currently employed as Emergency & Critical Care Liaison for Cornell University Veterinary Specialists, a level 1 trauma facility.

Ashley Ihrke

Ashley’s passion for wildlife started at a young age when exposed to many different wildlife species through the family’s bait shop and birding with her grandparents in Minnesota. She holds a Master of Science in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from Clemson University and a Master of Environmental Health and Safety from University of Minnesota Duluth. Currently residing in Wisconsin, she has been involved with the wildlife rehabilitation community since 2017 by volunteering and then becoming a staff member at a local wildlife rehabilitation center in Tennessee while completing her second masters. Although no longer a full-time staff member at the center, Ashley connects and volunteers with wildlife rehabilitators through aiding in rescues and releases, temporary animal care, and research. Over the last year Ashley has been working with FEMA for Tennessee disasters as an Environmental Specialist, focusing on threatened and endangered species impacts. She is a District Leader Volunteer with the Humane Society of the United States, a chapter member with a local Audubon Society, and a member of the Tennessee Bat Working Group. Her special interests include human-wildlife conflict, wildlife diseases, and wildlife public policy.

Lindsay Jones

Lindsay has been a passionate and driven wildlife biologist and wildlife rehabilitator in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for nearly thirteen years. She graduated with a B.S. in Animal Biology from Middle Tennessee State University and moved to the mountains of Jackson Hole, Wyoming to pursue a career in wildlife biology and spend time with family.

In 2013, Lindsay co-founded the Teton Wildlife Rehabilitation Center where she served as Co-Founder, Executive Director, wildlife rehabilitation specialist, and Vice President until April 2020. Lindsay has worked and volunteered on numerous wildlife projects in between odd jobs, non-profit development, and continuing education.

In 2019, Lindsay received a year-long fellowship through Partners for Wildlife and the University of Minnesota, aimed at increasing animal welfare by strengthening partnerships between veterinarians, rehabilitators, and agencies. In 2020, she also co-founded the Idaho Wildlife Rehabilitators Association, which is currently in the nascent stages of development.

Lindsay is committed to saving wildlife not only through rehabilitation and education, but also by strengthening agency and partner relationships to ensure a successful and healthy future for our animals, rehabilitators, and volunteers alike.

In her spare time, you can find her fly-fishing, mountain biking, gardening, skiing, and spending every waking moment with her dog and two cats. She is currently completing her M.S. in Nutrition and Integrative Health and resides in Victor, ID.

Jayanthi Kallam

Though her professional background has been in the field of management and information technology, she was always passionate about environmental sustainability and wildlife conservation. A chance encounter with an injured American Woodcock on the streets of New York City led her to take up wildlife rehabilitation as a vocation. 

Patricia J Latas DVM, MS, BS

Dr. Pat Latas is currently serving as a volunteer in consultations for avian health welfare and well-being; across the globe and in spectrum from local bird hoarding cases to parasites in wild macaws and evaluation of naturalized urban parrots.

Dr. Pat proudly served as the avian wildlife veterinarian for Tucson Wildlife Center, where patients included everything from Costa’s Hummingbirds to Golden Eagles, Roadrunners to Townsend’s Warblers; Desert Shrews to javelina; Uta lizards to Gila Monsters. Necropsy and forensic sampling were a large part of the duties.

She was the veterinarian for Arizona Bird Clinic, the only veterinary facility in the state that worked solely with avian species.

She was the in-house veterinarian for a huge animal shelter (70,000 animals per year); and staff veterinarian for a large (7,000 admitted per annum and 400+residents) wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, and exotic animal sanctuary facility–residents included farm animals, big cats, primates, domesticated deer, and native wildlife. She was dedicated to improving conditions, standards, and protocols

Wild psittacine conservation and rescue/rehabilitation/release are important to Dr. Latas, and she consults with a number of parrot organizations. Raising awareness of the rising tide of violence and cruelty to urban wildlife; developing improved communications between biological, rehabilitation and social disciplines; partnering with a diversity of people, groups, and organizations around the world are her personal professional goals.

She also serves on a number of committees, including Southern Arizona Animal Cruelty Task Force, Association of Avian Veterinarians Welfare and Conservation Committees, the International Ornithological Union’s Working Group Psittaciformes Wild Parrot Veterinary Section, Board of Directors of SoCal Parrot.

Dr. Pat has visited, observed and occasionally worked with wildlife in South Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Ecuador, Brasil, Costa Rica and the wilds of New Mexico and Kansas.

Dr. Latas was deeply honored to be selected to work as a kakapo volunteer on pristine Whenua Hou Island with the Department of Conservation in New Zealand, in 2011 and 2014.

Dr. Latas has a BS in botany and MS in biology; DVM from Oregon State.

Dr. Latas has a certificate in Science Illustration. She worked in dotcom animation and donates traditional and digital artwork to a number of conservation organizations.