For some 30 years, I lived and worked outside of Poland, my country of origin and birth. In the late 1980s, my parents were granted political asylum in the United States. I fledged early to travel and study, living and working in a number of countries including Tanzania, South Africa, Chile, Costa Rica, Equatorial Guinea and Thailand. I didn't take my freedom and mobility for granted. I earned my first degree in Animal Behavior at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania in 2001 under the mentorship of Prof Doug Candland, and a doctorate in Biological Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in 2007 supervised by Prof Phyllis Lee. Both Lee and Candland are unapologetic champions for animals, their conservation and welfare. My PhD fieldwork focused on the behavioral flexibility and demography of the endangered and endemic Zanzibar red colobus monkey where it inhabits unprotected coastal forests including mangroves. Since then, swamp forests and their use by vertebrates for refuge and respite have captivated me.
After stints habituating langurs in Thailand, collecting data on conflict resolution in spider monkeys in Costa Rica, and surveying monkeys and duiker on Bioko Island in the Gulf of Guinea with Filemon Etingue (one of the best field people I ever worked with), I landed in the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania where, with Trevor Jones, I co-founded an elephant research and conservation project that has since grown to become the Southern Tanzania Elephant Program (STEP). My work in Tanzania led to a postdoc that helped me to carry out dung surveys of Udzungwa's forest-dwelling savanna elephants, become more engaged in the ivory trade debate, and co-develop a beehive fence initiative with Tanzanian farmers to mitigate crop losses associated with elephants' use of human food crops.
In the Udzungwa Mountains, I collaborated with and mentored Ponjoli Joram, the youngest Tanzanian park ecologist in the country at the time, including during his Masters thesis on elephant crop-use. I also supervised undergraduate students pursuing senior thesis projects on primate polyspecific interactions, malaria over-diagnosis, and the sudden emergence of dengue fever in Tanzania. In 2014, I moved to South Africa to pursue research on samango monkeys at two Afromontane forest sites, the Soutpansberg Mountains in Limpopo and the Amathole Mountains in the Eastern Cape. Using field experiments, my team and I measured the risk monkeys perceive from natural predators and also humans with some surprising results. I also became involved in discussions about rhino horn trade that incited me to interview a vicuna ecologist in Chile, write a policy brief for a South African think tank, and document the acceptance by the South African government of an open letter signed by 33 conservation scientists and practitioners advocating against resumption of rhino horn trade. Unfortunately, South Africa reinstated a domestic trade in rhino horn in 2017/2018 largely due to litigation and pressure from (wealthy and white) private rhino owners.
Over the years, I have consulted for a range of NGOs on coastal forest biodiversity, mitigation of highway crossings by wildlife, wind farms, and more responsible mining. For one of these consultancies, I worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Tanzania to identify and rank 62 Priority Primate Areas which included two sites at which I conducted my doctoral fieldwork. For another, I used the CITES wildlife trade database to crunch data on African lions for Beyond Cecil: Africa's Lions in Crisis, a collaborative report by WildAid, Panthera, and WildCRU. Reporting from Tanzania, South Africa, Chile and Canada, I contributed stories to National Geographic about elephant population declines, canned lion hunting, trade in Cape fur seals and other wild species, and threat of copper mining to Peruvian terns.
In Fall 2016, I briefly returned to the U.S. to take up a science and technology policy fellowship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and was hosted by the Division of International Conservation in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In Fall 2017, I left D.C. (during the Trump era), and, by way of Colorado, landed in the Yukon for three wonderful years before returning to Poland in 2021.
After stints habituating langurs in Thailand, collecting data on conflict resolution in spider monkeys in Costa Rica, and surveying monkeys and duiker on Bioko Island in the Gulf of Guinea with Filemon Etingue (one of the best field people I ever worked with), I landed in the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania where, with Trevor Jones, I co-founded an elephant research and conservation project that has since grown to become the Southern Tanzania Elephant Program (STEP). My work in Tanzania led to a postdoc that helped me to carry out dung surveys of Udzungwa's forest-dwelling savanna elephants, become more engaged in the ivory trade debate, and co-develop a beehive fence initiative with Tanzanian farmers to mitigate crop losses associated with elephants' use of human food crops.
In the Udzungwa Mountains, I collaborated with and mentored Ponjoli Joram, the youngest Tanzanian park ecologist in the country at the time, including during his Masters thesis on elephant crop-use. I also supervised undergraduate students pursuing senior thesis projects on primate polyspecific interactions, malaria over-diagnosis, and the sudden emergence of dengue fever in Tanzania. In 2014, I moved to South Africa to pursue research on samango monkeys at two Afromontane forest sites, the Soutpansberg Mountains in Limpopo and the Amathole Mountains in the Eastern Cape. Using field experiments, my team and I measured the risk monkeys perceive from natural predators and also humans with some surprising results. I also became involved in discussions about rhino horn trade that incited me to interview a vicuna ecologist in Chile, write a policy brief for a South African think tank, and document the acceptance by the South African government of an open letter signed by 33 conservation scientists and practitioners advocating against resumption of rhino horn trade. Unfortunately, South Africa reinstated a domestic trade in rhino horn in 2017/2018 largely due to litigation and pressure from (wealthy and white) private rhino owners.
Over the years, I have consulted for a range of NGOs on coastal forest biodiversity, mitigation of highway crossings by wildlife, wind farms, and more responsible mining. For one of these consultancies, I worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Tanzania to identify and rank 62 Priority Primate Areas which included two sites at which I conducted my doctoral fieldwork. For another, I used the CITES wildlife trade database to crunch data on African lions for Beyond Cecil: Africa's Lions in Crisis, a collaborative report by WildAid, Panthera, and WildCRU. Reporting from Tanzania, South Africa, Chile and Canada, I contributed stories to National Geographic about elephant population declines, canned lion hunting, trade in Cape fur seals and other wild species, and threat of copper mining to Peruvian terns.
In Fall 2016, I briefly returned to the U.S. to take up a science and technology policy fellowship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and was hosted by the Division of International Conservation in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In Fall 2017, I left D.C. (during the Trump era), and, by way of Colorado, landed in the Yukon for three wonderful years before returning to Poland in 2021.
Fellowships, Appointments and Consultancies
2022 | Assistant Professor, Białowieża Geobotanical Station
2021 | Lecturer and Research Associate, University of Alberta / Yukon University
2020 | Conservation Science Coordinator, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society — Yukon
2019 | Contractor, 500 Women Scientists (Request a Woman in STEMM directory coordinator)
2018 - 2020| Fellow, The Safina Center
2018 / 2019| Consultant, Wildlife Conservation Society-Canada (report on mountain goat crossings of the Klondike Highway)
2018 | Contractor, Wildlife Conservation Society - Americas Program (mountain goat molt phenology research)
2017 (Fall semester) | Visiting Scientist, Fish, Wildlife & Conservation Biology, Colorado State University
2016 - 2017 | AAAS Science & Tech Policy Fellow - U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Africa Branch
2016 | Consultant, WildAid - USA (analysis of wildlife trade data for report about African lions)
2013 - 2019 | Research Associate, University of the Free State, Qwaqwa campus, Zoology & Entomology - RSA
2013 - 2016 | Junior Research Fellow, Durham University, Evolutionary Anthropology
2013 | Consultant, Environmental Investigation Agency - UK (preparing info docs on African elephants ahead of CITES CoP16)
2010 - 2012 | Postdoc & Lecturer, Princeton University, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
2009 | Consultant, Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (coastal forest biodiversity surveys, data analysis & technical report writing)
2008 - 2009 | Consultant, Wildlife Conservation Society - Tanzania (to delineate Priority Primate Areas)
2003-2007 | PhD work in Zanzibar, Tanzania, with the University of Cambridge
2002 | Field Assistant, spider monkey project, Santa Rosa National Park - Costa Rica
2021 | Lecturer and Research Associate, University of Alberta / Yukon University
2020 | Conservation Science Coordinator, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society — Yukon
2019 | Contractor, 500 Women Scientists (Request a Woman in STEMM directory coordinator)
2018 - 2020| Fellow, The Safina Center
2018 / 2019| Consultant, Wildlife Conservation Society-Canada (report on mountain goat crossings of the Klondike Highway)
2018 | Contractor, Wildlife Conservation Society - Americas Program (mountain goat molt phenology research)
2017 (Fall semester) | Visiting Scientist, Fish, Wildlife & Conservation Biology, Colorado State University
2016 - 2017 | AAAS Science & Tech Policy Fellow - U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Africa Branch
2016 | Consultant, WildAid - USA (analysis of wildlife trade data for report about African lions)
2013 - 2019 | Research Associate, University of the Free State, Qwaqwa campus, Zoology & Entomology - RSA
2013 - 2016 | Junior Research Fellow, Durham University, Evolutionary Anthropology
2013 | Consultant, Environmental Investigation Agency - UK (preparing info docs on African elephants ahead of CITES CoP16)
2010 - 2012 | Postdoc & Lecturer, Princeton University, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
2009 | Consultant, Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (coastal forest biodiversity surveys, data analysis & technical report writing)
2008 - 2009 | Consultant, Wildlife Conservation Society - Tanzania (to delineate Priority Primate Areas)
2003-2007 | PhD work in Zanzibar, Tanzania, with the University of Cambridge
2002 | Field Assistant, spider monkey project, Santa Rosa National Park - Costa Rica
Funding
2019 Microsoft AI for Earth sponsorship of Azure computing in amount of $15,000 for Mountain Goat Molt Project
2018 Kokopelli Packraft sponsorship of Mountain Goat Molt Project in form of packrafts loan
2014 RW Primate Fund (for samango monkey research in South Africa)
2014 ESRC Training Bursary (R-course at St. Andrew's CREEM)
2013 Claude Leon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (for samango monkey research in South Africa)
2011 U.S. Fish & Wildlife, African Elephant Conservation Fund (first USFWS grant made to STEP)
2008 & 2010 Idea Wild, Equipment (for elephant research with STEP)
2007 Royal Anthropological Institute, Ruggles-Gates (morphometric analysis of red colobus skulls)
2006 Lundgren Research Award, Cambridge (PhD thesis writing)
2004 American Society of Primatologists (Zanzibar red colobus conservation research)
2004 Leakey Trust (Zanzibar red colobus conservation research)
2003 Wildlife Conservation Society RFP (Zanzibar red colobus conservation research)
2003 The Leakey Foundation (Zanzibar red colobus conservation research)
2003 Primate Conservation, Inc. (Zanzibar red colobus conservation research)
2002 & 2003 National Science Foundation, Honorable Mention
Training
2014 R course, St. Andrew's Center for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modeling, Scotland, UK
2008 Beekeeper Certification, North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service & NC State Beekeepers Association, US
2007 ArcGIS, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK
2018 Kokopelli Packraft sponsorship of Mountain Goat Molt Project in form of packrafts loan
2014 RW Primate Fund (for samango monkey research in South Africa)
2014 ESRC Training Bursary (R-course at St. Andrew's CREEM)
2013 Claude Leon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (for samango monkey research in South Africa)
2011 U.S. Fish & Wildlife, African Elephant Conservation Fund (first USFWS grant made to STEP)
2008 & 2010 Idea Wild, Equipment (for elephant research with STEP)
2007 Royal Anthropological Institute, Ruggles-Gates (morphometric analysis of red colobus skulls)
2006 Lundgren Research Award, Cambridge (PhD thesis writing)
2004 American Society of Primatologists (Zanzibar red colobus conservation research)
2004 Leakey Trust (Zanzibar red colobus conservation research)
2003 Wildlife Conservation Society RFP (Zanzibar red colobus conservation research)
2003 The Leakey Foundation (Zanzibar red colobus conservation research)
2003 Primate Conservation, Inc. (Zanzibar red colobus conservation research)
2002 & 2003 National Science Foundation, Honorable Mention
Training
2014 R course, St. Andrew's Center for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modeling, Scotland, UK
2008 Beekeeper Certification, North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service & NC State Beekeepers Association, US
2007 ArcGIS, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, UK
