June 19, 2015

From Dr. Tara Stoinski, en route to Rwanda

I am headed off to the Fossey Fund’s Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda, accompanied by seven huge bags of supplies for our field staff, along with my 7- and 8-year-old daughters. We’ll spend close to a month in Africa — the girls playing with the friends they made last year while I work with our gorilla programs.

The Fossey Fund has more than 130 staff members in Africa, including gorilla trackers, anti-poachers, scientists, educators, and administrators. So, there will be lots of discussions as we review all of our field operations and plan next year’s activities and budgets. We will also conduct leadership training and strategize about events for the 50th anniversary of Karisoke in 2017, which we plan to kick off in late 2016.

Summer is also the time when a number of our partners also are on site in Africa, and so I’ll be meeting with folks visiting from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Partners in Conservation, the George Washington University, Gorilla Doctors, and Emory University among others. But luckily all my time won’t be spent in the office — we have two tour groups coming to see the gorillas, and so I will be very excited to spend a few days in the forest with them watching the gorillas. We’ll also have them meet our team and visit our community outreach projects near the park.

I'll update you from the field in Africa soon!

Tara Stoinski, Ph.D., President and CEO/Chief Scientific Officer