Graeme Patterson, PhD

I have a long experience working on a variety of projects with a focus on conservation and the environment - for the last 20 years I have primarily worked with zoos as part of their commitment to Field Conservation. I have been involved with research, teaching, planning and management.  Much of that experience relates to Africa, though my experience and skill sets translate to a wide variety of settings with a more recent work focused in Asia, South America and the American West.

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in 2016 I relocated to Colorado to work at Denver Zoo as VP of Conservation and Research.  In this role I managed the portfolio of field conservation programs implemented by Denver Zoo - these are focused locally in the Rocky Mountain/Great Plains of the USA, Mongolia, Botswana, Vietnam and Peru.  For the year prior to taking on the role at Denver Zoo I worked at NEON Inc. as Assistant  Director of Field Operations.  This work at NEON was focused on examining long-term environmental changes across the continental US. From 2020 to 2022 I directed the JV8 Initiative which was focused on bird conservation in the Central Grasslands of N. America.​

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Many of the skills I have were acquired in the position I held prior to my move to Colorado.  I worked as Deputy Director of the Africa Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a position I held for 14 years. At WCS I had prime responsibility for providing direct support to our field-based Africa Program. On a day-to-day basis my job consisted of providing logistical and technical backup to a wide range of conservation projects. I was a critical part of the process of establishing the strategies for the Africa Program and led the planning of landscape-level conservation, threats assessment and species-based conservation targets in a number of field locations. This work involved the design of criteria for measuring the effectiveness of our projects and the program overall. WCS's threat-based approach demanded that I had knowledge of a wide range of approaches, from community engagement to law enforcement, and using a wide range of conservation tools (REDD+, intelligence gathering, development of ranger-based monitoring, census, remote sensing etc.). In all of my work I have retained a strong focus on science, which provides the best possible evidence of success and failure of conservation efforts. I have also provided a direct link between field conservation projects and donors (including private, government and agency), wrote and edited grant proposals and acted as a spokesperson for conservation work at meetings with donors. In addition I have presented at public fora in the U.S., Europe  and in Africa, including negotiating with community and local government groups at a field level as well as dealing with the press. I have always been deeply involved in grant-making and scholarship programs also and am very familiar with the assessment of proposals. 

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I am also an experienced manager with excellent interpersonal skills.  I have been the direct line supervisor for senior field staff/scientists where remote and difficult postings of many of my reportees made this a particularly challenging role, which involved frequent communications and visits, and a deep understanding of their unique issues both professional and personal. The conservation mission that is an underpinning of all the positions I have held, and the successes of the projects I have been involved with, has been a strong motivator, representing my own deep understanding of everyone’s dependence on nature and my own particular connection to it.

 

My earlier career had been more focused on applied aquatic science and teaching, working on research, management and conservation issues in freshwater environments. I worked for 5 years as the technical coordinator of the Lake Tanganyika Global Environment Fund program in which I had a principal role in the preparation of the bid to UNDP for the management of this $8 million project. I provided major technical input to the research-oriented part of this program; as an ecologist, algal taxonomist and on environmental monitoring systems.

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Prior to this I was employed as a limnologist/phytoplankton ecologist on a large program to describe the ecology of the pelagic fisheries ecology of Lake Malawi in Africa. This involved conducting synoptic surveys of Lake Malawi/Niassa (29,000 km²) where I was responsible for describing the hydrology, nutrient regime and phytoplankton dynamics. My work as an ecologist on these projects is well known in the international scientific community through my publications and presentations and at conferences and in other advisory meetings. I have outstanding presentation skills honed during many years as a university teacher and can tailor my presentations to meet the needs of all kinds of audiences from school children to my technical peers and including lay audiences and donors. My PhD from the University of Durham, UK, focused on the impacts of toxic heavy metals on freshwater environments and I also have a solid background in marine work having studied and taught marine ecology.

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I am originally from the UK and I currently live in Colorado but have work rights in EU and UK in addition to US. My wife is an educator and we have a 16 year-old son and two rescue hounds, Ringo and Misha, of undetermined ages. I spend my spare time enjoying the outdoors and accompanying myself on the guitar.