Adjunct Faculty are not regular University faculty members, but people from outside the University who make significant contributions to the CONS program. They teach occasional seminars or lectures in CONS courses, mentor interns, and help provide advice to students.

Dr. Jonathan Ballou (Ph.D. Population Genetics, University of Maryland) is the Population Manager at the National Zoological Park of the Smithsonian Institution. He specializes in the genetic and demographic problems of small populations, both in captivity and the wild. Much of his research has focused on the effects of inbreeding in populations of mammals and the implications of inbreeding related problems on the long term viability of small populations. He has also worked closely with the international zoo community to develop the theory and tools for managing genetic diversity in zoo populations. He consults with the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group of the IUCN and has been involved in numerous Population and Habitat Viability Analyses organized by that group to aid in developing conservation strategies for severely endangered species. Dr. Ballou is also the studbook keeper and coordinator of the international captive breeding program for the endangered golden lion tamarin.
E-mail: Jballou (at) nzp.si.edu

Dr. Katrina Brandon is a Senior Technical Advisor in the Human Dimensions Program in the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science at Conservation International.  A social scientist, she began researching the human side of conservation while an undergraduate at the University of Miami, studying the impacts of South Florida development and water use on Everglades National Park and the Miccosukee Indians living near the park.  Her research includes work on: protected area design and management, root causes of biodiversity loss, training needs for biodiversity conservation, human-wildlife conflict, reserve design and edge effects, tourism, and poverty and human welfare, indigenous peoples and conservation, payments for environmental services, and macroeconomic and policy reforms leading to biodiversity conservation.  She is also a Senior Fellow in Environmental Science and Policy with the Organization for Tropical Studies, building training programs for U.S. and Latin American decision-makers.  Before joining CABS, she worked as a social scientist at the World Wildlife Fund, the World Bank's Environment Department, and The Nature Conservancy. Two of Dr. Brandon's publications are People and Parks: Linking Protected Area Management with Local Communities and Parks in Peril: People, Politics, and Protected Areas.  She has also published many journal articles, book chapters, and other publications.  She was recently elected to a three-year term with the Board of Directors of the Society for Conservation Biology.  More information can be found at:  http://portals.conservation.org/cabs/staff/staff_bio.cfm?classID=2&objectID=3F21BD9C-8670-11D4-BAF9-001083FC49A3

Dr. John R. Cannon (Ph.D. in Psychology, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1968). Dr. Cannon is Chief Executive Officer of Human Technology, Inc., a private corporation that specializes in human interaction skills development, and human productivity improvement, through training and organizational change. Recently, he has conducted research on conservation problem-solving and the human interaction skills needed by conservation professionals. Dr. Cannon is also investigating the processes involved in the planning and implementation of successful endangered species recovery programs. He has a particular interest in the worldwide conservation of cranes and their wetland habitats. Dr. Cannon is a consultant to the International Crane Foundation and the Aldo Leopold Shack Foundation.
E-mail: johncann (at) wam.umd.edu

Lou Ann Dietz (Ed.S. Educational Systems Development, Michigan State University, 1981) is an independent consultant in Building Capacity for Conservation Practitioners. 
With over 25 years of pioneering field experience in Latin America (16 years for World Wildlife Fund), integrating applications of both social and biological sciences to develop solutions to complex conservation problems, Lou Ann has a proven track record as a successful manager of field projects, grant portfolios, and large-scale trans-border biodiversity conservation strategies, through the full cycle of situation analysis, design, funding, implementation, evaluation, sharing lessons, and adaptation.  As an educator she has a long history of helping practitioners to increase the effectiveness of their conservation work.  She is known and respected as a compassionate professional with the ability to empower and mobilize communities, organizations, teams (international, national, community, government, non-government), and individuals, toward achievement of a common conservation goal.  Lou Ann began her conservation career in 1973 as a Peace Corps volunteer at the Federal University of Viçosa in Brazil, where she taught forestry school faculty to improve their teaching methods.  She later spent two years assisting a field research project on the ecology of endangered maned wolves in a Brazilian national park.  Beginning in 1983, working in Brazil with a team of Smithsonian National Zoo biologists, Brazilian government protected area managers, and local community leaders in Rio de Janeiro state, she developed a targeted community environmental education program which resulted in documented behavior changes and made the golden lion tamarin (GLT) a national symbol for conservation.  She is a founding member of the Associação Mico-Leão Dourado (AMLD), a Brazilian NGO, and continues to guide the organization toward achievement of its goal of a viable population of golden lion tamarins in its Atlantic Coastal Forest habitat.  The conservation status of the GLT species was recently reduced from critically endangered to endangered, largely a result of this organization’s efforts.  Lou Ann also serves as president of Save the Golden Lion Tamarin, a US non-profit organization dedicated to raising funds to increase the sustainability of the AMLD’s efforts.   She has published many articles, book chapters, and educational materials on her conservation work, particularly in the design and evaluation of conservation programs targeting human behavior change.  Lou Ann helped to develop and continues to coordinate teaching of the  course Adaptive Management for Conservation Projects for the University of Maryland CONS Program. Email: louann.dietz (at) verizon.net

Dr. Michael Hutchins (Ph.D. in Animal Behavior, minors in Ecology and Statistics, University of Washington, 1984).  Dr.Hutchins is currently Executive Director/CEO of The Wildlife Society based in Bethesda , MD. Established in 1937, TWS is a scientific and educational society dedicated to the responsible stewardship of wildlife in North America and worldwide ( www.wildlife.org ). He served as Director /William Conway Chair of the Department of Conservation and Science, American Zoo and Aquarium Association from 1990-2005. Dr. Hutchins is currently associate editor for Zoo Biology and Editor of International Zoo Yearbook. Additionally, he is series editor for Grzimeks Animal Life Encyclopedia and Johns Hopkins University Press' book series, Studies in Zoo and Aquarium Biology and Conservation. Dr. Hutchins is also senior fellow at Georgia Instituite for Technology's Center for Conservation and Behavior. His research interests include the application of animal behavior to wildlife management and conservation, conservation biology, environmental ethics and conservation education, and the evolution of social behavior in vertebrates. He has published numerous articles, books, and reports on behavioral ecology and conservation. He led the creation of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force (www.bushmeat .org) and the Butterfly Conservation Initiative ( www.butterflyrecovery.org ) and is currently helping to create a multi-organizational consortium focused on human-wildlife conflicts.

Dr. Taylor Ricketts (Ph.D., Stanford University, 2000). Taylor is the Director of the Conservation Science Program at World Wildlife Fund. Taylor's interests span a broad range of topics in ecology and conservation biology, from global analyses of biodiversity
patterns and threats, to field studies on the causes and effects of habitat fragmentation. Taylor led WWF's conservation assessment of North American ecoregions, the first in a continuing series published by Island Press. He continues to analyze large-scale datasets for insights into (i) why biodiversity is distributed the way it is, (ii) how these patterns relate to those of human threats, and (iii) how this information can improve conservation. Taylor's field studies currently focus on ecosystem services; he is investigating the value of tropical forest fragments as sources of wild pollinators to surrounding coffee crops. This field project is part of a long-term interest in the interactions between habitat fragments and surrounding agricultural areas, and in improving the potential of these landscapes to support native biodiversity. Taylor received both his Ph.D. and post-doctoral training from Stanford University. He is also a nature photographer, a soccer player, and a (mostly former) expedition leader for eco-tours around the world.
E-mail: taylor.ricketts (at) wwfus.org