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Featured Keynote
Speaker
Dr. Robert Sapolsky
 The Utah chapter of AAZK is proud to announce
that Dr. Robert Sapolsky, renowned author and the world's funniest
neuroscientist, will be the opening keynote speaker for our 2008 national
conference.
As a boy in New
York City, Robert Sapolsky dreamed of living inside the African dioramas
in the Museum of Natural History. By the age of twenty-one, he made it to
Africa and joined a troop of baboons. Although the life of a naturalist
appealed to him because it was a chance to "get the hell out of
Brooklyn," he never really left people behind.
His gift for
storytelling led The New York Times to suggest,“If you crossed Jane
Goodall with a borscht-belt comedian, she might have written a book like
A Primate's Memoir- a Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the
Baboons,“ Sapolsky's account of his early years as a field biologist.
The uniqueness
of Sapolsky's perspective on the human condition comes from the ease with
which he combines his insights from the field with his findings as a
neuroscientist. For more than twenty-five years, Sapolsky has divided his
time between fieldwork with baboons and highly technical neurological
research in the laboratory. As a result, he can effortlessly move from a
discussion of pecking orders in primate societies (human and baboon) to
an explanation of how neurotransmitters work during stress--and get laughs
doing it.
 The humor and
humanity he brings to sometimes-sobering subject matter make Dr. Sapolsky
a fascinating speaker. He has a true passion for his work and lectures
widely on topics as diverse as stress and stress-related diseases,
baboons, the biology of our individuality, the biology of religious
belief, the biology of memory, schizophrenia, depression, aggression, and
Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Sapolsky is a wacky and brilliant
presence. He is a MacArthur "Genius" Fellow, a professor of biology and
neurology at Stanford University, and a research associate with the
Institute of Primate Research at the National Museum of Kenya. In
addition to A Primate's Memoir, which won the 2001 Bay Area Book
Reviewers Award in nonfiction, Sapolsky has written three other books,
including The Trouble with Testosterone, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, and Monkeyluv and Other Essays on our Lives as Animals. His articles have
appeared in publications such as Discover and The New Yorker.
Additional Guest Speakers Amy
Sutherland
  Amy Sutherland, author of "Kicked, Bitten and Scratched- Life and Lessons at the World's Premier School for Exotic Animal Trainers", will share some of her unique stories from the year she shadowed students through Moorpark College's animal program. While observing the trainers at Moorpark, Amy had an epiphany: What if she used these training techniques with the human animals in her own life? Sutherland tells in her new book, "What Shamu Taught Me About Love, Life and Marriage—Lessons for People from Animals and Their Trainers,” how she took the trainers' lessons home. She describes her Alice-in-Wonderland experience of stumbling into a world where cheetahs walk nicely on leashes and elephants paint with watercolors . . . leaving a new, improved Homo sapiens.
Tony Vecchio
 Tony Vecchio has been the director of the Oregon Zoo since 1998. He began his zoo career in 1969 at the Highland Park Zoo in Pittsburgh, PA in concessions and worked his way up to a position in the Children's Zoo.
Tony earned a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Resource Management/Wildlife Conservation from Pennsylvania State University. After college, the Riverbanks Zoo hired him as a carnivore and primate keeper, and later promoted him to senior keeper of carnivores, primates, and small mammals. During his seven year tenure at Riverbanks, he attended the University of South Carolina, completing a Master's degree in Biology and completed his thesis on primate social behavior.
Tony then became curator of mammals for Zoo Atlanta. After two years, he accepted the position of general curator at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, RI. One year later he was promoted to director, a position he held for nine years.
Tony is a professional fellow of AZA (American Zoo and Aquarium Association) and a long-time member and supporter of AAZK. He attended his first AAZK conference in Toronto in 1981. Shortly after that, with a band of enthusiastic keepers, he helped to found the first AAZK chapter at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. He serves on the Field Conservation Committee and Pig and Peccary TAG (Taxon Advisory Group). He is a past-board chairman of ZCOG (Zoo Conservation Outreach Group), and has served on the Portland Audubon Society Board of Directors, AZA Ethics Board, AZA Board of Directors and numerous AZA TAGs and SSPs (Species Survival Plan). He also serves on the Boards of Directors for POVA (Portland Oregon Visitors Association), The Wildlands Project, and the Pacific Festival Ballet.
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"The Inside Scoop" on the 2008 AAZK Conference
Program
 This year the conference
program will be changing a bit and we have some exciting plans in
store! The national conference will now include more interactive
workshops that will enhance our organization's commitment to
professional development and increase our conference delegates'
take home value. The 2008 conference theme is focused on
creativity, professionalism and initiative...all elements that
enhance our commitment to elevating animal care. Our ultimate goal
is to inspire, inform and empower delegates and we're confident
that these fresh opportunities and impressive speakers will
certainly accomplish this! We envision that these workshops will be
very interactive, motivational and have some fun participatory
activities mixed in!
""Keepers in Conservation Workshop" hosted by Patty Peartree with Bowling for
Rhinos, Mary Wykstra of the Cheetah Conservation Fund Kenya, Norm
Gershenz with the Center for Ecosystem Survival and Jennifer Snell
of the Snow Leopard Trust. These experts (some of which were also
keepers at one time in their careers) will discuss creative,
motivational ideas on how keepers can get involved in conservation.
Keepers can sometimes feel detached from our role in conservation
and this workshop will make that connection as well as provide some
tools on how you too can contribute in real and tangible, hands-on
ways.
"Neonatal Symposium"
(pre-registration required) This will be a fee based, full day
workshop for a maximum of 30 delegates. Registration will be on a
first come, first serve basis. (See registration page for further
details.) This symposium will be moderated by Bob Cisneros, Lead
Keeper at San Diego Zoo's Children's Zoo (which includes both hoofstock and mammal nurseries) who also sits on our AAZK Board of
Directors. Speakers and instructors of this session thus far
include Mark Edwards- Associate Professor of Comparative Nutrition,
Animal Science Department, California Polytechnic State University
and Pat Witman, Manager of the San Diego Zoo Avian Propagation
Center. Introduction to this symposium will include a full paper
session open to all conference attendees, dedicated to neonatal
care. It will discuss the history and future of infant animal care
in a zoological setting. The paper session will be followed by a
concurrent, full day closed workshop (lunch included) on:
developing hand-rearing protocols for a number of species-specific
animal groups, neonatal nutrition and pathology/medical concerns.
If you are interested in
contributing to the designated paper session on issues
related neonatal care, please submit your abstract by May 1, 2008.
(See 'Call for Papers')
 In addition,
a professional development workshop,
tentatively titled "If I Ran the Zoo", will specifically tie in
leadership, communication and problem solving techniques regarding
all things zoo related: enrichment, training, conservation,
education, fundraising, teamwork, etc. This workshop will provide
animal care professionals with those tools that could help them
gain buy-in and "sell" their ideas to peers, managers and even
visitors. We hope to offer a panel of 4 workshop leaders: a keeper,
a director/manager, a communications/leadership expert and someone
from a marketing or education perspective (the "how to sell your
idea" angle). Workshop leaders (TBA) will be those that apply a
"leadership by example" philosophy to their work. Check back soon
for further details.
Additional topics being discussed include,
but are certainly not limited to:
So we would like to encourage YOU, animal care
professionals from all related fields, to submit high quality,
original topics for consideration. Abstracts are now being accepted
for papers, posters and workshops. Have you initiated a new
husbandry technique? Do you have a new and creative approach to
animal training? How about an innovative approach to conservation
education? We're looking forward to some original, fun and fabulous
ideas for this new format! Stay tuned for further updates. |
Additional speakers to be announced and program notes
coming soon!
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