One of the world’s foremost authorities on the African elephant, Dr Douglas-Hamilton pioneered the first in-depth scientific study of elephant social behaviour in Tanzania’s Lake Manyara National Park at age 23. He received a DPhil in zoology from the University of Oxford. During the 1970s he investigated the status of elephants throughout Africa and was the first to alert the world to the ivory poaching holocaust. He chronicled how Africa’s elephant population was halved between 1979 and 1989 and helped bring about the world ivory trade ban. Iain and his wife Oria have co-authored two award-winning books, “Among the Elephants” and “Battle for the Elephants” and have made numerous television films. He founded Save the Elephants in 1993 at the suggestion of Felix Appelbe in order to create an effective and flexible NGO dedicated specifically to elephants. He serves on the data review task force of the African Elephant Specialist Group of IUCN, and the Technical Advisory Group for MIKE. He also conducts regular lecture tours and works with the media to promote STE’s mission and awareness of elephants in general. Over the last few years Iain has spoken at numerous conferences including the Wildlife Conservation Network, and the 7th World Wilderness Congress. In 2012, Dr. Douglas-Hamilton spoke before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Ivory and Insecurity: The Global Implications of Poaching in Africa. In 2013, Iain’s high level meeting at the White House was followed by both the Obama Executive Order, and the Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to action to Stop the Killing, Stop the Trafficking and Stop the Demand for ivory. Additionally, Iain has spoken at Universities, Zoological Societies, Embassies and private fundraising functions throughout Europe and America. His chief research interest is to understand elephant choices by studying their movements. For his work on elephants he was awarded one of conservation’s highest awards the Order of the Golden Ark in 1988 and the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2015. Dr Iain Douglas-Hamilton was named the recipient of the 2010 Indianapolis Prize, one of the world’s leading awards for animal conservation. In recognition for his lifetime achievements, he received the Lilly Medal at a gala ceremony presented by Cummins Inc., at The Westin Hotel in Indianapolis.

Frank Pope is CEO of Save The Elephants. He joined Save The Elephants as COO in 2012 at the height of the poaching crisis. An experienced bush pilot, Pope is at the helm of an organisation renowned for using the power of science to secure a future for elephants. A passionate communicator, after many years in marine science and conservation Pope became the world’s first Ocean Correspondent, at The Times newspaper in London. During this time he published two acclaimed books and fronted the BBC series Britain’s Secret Seas. Pope is now working with Save the Elephants’ world-leading team of scientists and conservationists to reveal the intricate and complex world of elephants and to forge innovative solutions to their protection.

Wainaina Kimani is the longest serving member of Save The Elephants being with the organisation since its inception. He has held many roles including Chief Finance Officer. In 2017, he took over from Frank Pope as the new Chief Operations Officer.

Dr. Chris Thouless has nearly 30 years of experience working for governments, NGOs and private sector in Africa and Asia. He is a specialist in wildlife conservation, community-based natural resource management, project management, protected area planning and management, public private partnerships and tourism development. He has a particular interest in elephant conservation, having worked on elephant movement patterns, human wildlife conflict and elephant surveys in several countries. He was Chairman of CITES Panel of Experts on the African Elephant in 1996 and has been a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission since 1986. He was lead author of the African Elephant Status Report (2016). Chris has held a number of senior positions, including coordinator of the reconstruction of the Nairobi National Museum, director of Millenium Challenge Corporation investments in community conservation in Namibia, senior wildlife biologist for the Kalahari in Botswana, chief advisor on sustainable tourism to the government of Namibia and deputy director of the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, a leading private sector conservation organisation in Kenya. Chris holds an MA in zoology from the University of Oxford, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He was awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal in 1991.

Saba Douglas-Hamilton is a conservationist, filmmaker and TV host.  She served as a Trustee of Save the Elephants (STE) for a decade and is now their lead ambassador. With a first class degree in Social Anthropology from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, she first worked with the Save the Rhino Trust in Namibia before helping establish STE’s research HQ in northern Kenya as the organisation’s first Head of Operations. As a wildlife filmmaker with the BBC Saba hosted nine award-winning TV series and twenty-four documentaries. As a communicator on conservation, she is acclaimed for her ability to inspire audiences around the world to engage with the wild world. She also runs Elephant Watch Camp, an intimate eco-camp and life-long partner of Save the Elephants.

When we visit Save the Elephants it’s as if we are visiting family. Iain, Frank, and Saba are inspirations to all of us that a few people can make a huge difference in the world. We hope their stories inspire others to realize what impact anyone can achieve!

If you have any special requests for our next letter, please be sure to let us know!

Lesley is the Administrative Assistant to the Founder & President. She is responsible for organizing and updating the   Founder & President’s diary and schedule on a daily basis and the organization of all activities, events, meetings and communications on the Founder & President’s behalf. She is also responsible for organizing all international fund-raising trips and events for theFounder & President, ensuring all travel requirements are booked and planned well in advance. Lesley’s management skills include 10 years of business management experience. In addition she has experience in human resource and her expertise includes employee relations management, recruitment, hiring, policies and organizational development.

Dr Lucy King was brought up in Somalia, Lesotho and Kenya. She has been researching the use of honey bees as a natural deterrent for crop-raiding elephants since 2006, and has published her findings in numerous scientific journals. Her DPhil thesis, through Oxford University and in partnership with Save the Elephants and Disney’s Animal Kingdom, was awarded the UNEP/CMS Thesis Award 2011 from the United Nations Environment Program’s Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species. She won The Future for Nature Award and The St Andrews Prize for the Environment in 2013. She is actively involved in the Kenyan Elephant Forum (KEF) and in 2013 she was invited to join IUCN’s African Elephant Specialist Group. Previously she completed an MSc in Biology, Integrative Bioscience, from Balliol College, Oxford (2006) and gained a First Class degree in Zoology from Bristol University (1999). Between 2000 and 2005, she led numerous conservation projects and adventurous expeditions to Africa and South America in her role as Operations Director for Quest Overseas. She now lives in Nairobi with her partner, leading further research into the use of bees as an elephant deterrent both in Kenya and further afield.

Pooja comes to us with 14 years of fundraising experience at organisations in the US and Australia. However, her first passion has always been the protection of wildlife. She has a Bachelors in Zoology from Ohio Wesleyan University and a Masters in Wildlife Conservation from Macquarie University. Pooja has travelled extensively around the world and sought out volunteer opportunities at various wildlife rescue and conservation organisations. This includes stints at the Elephant Valley Project in Cambodia and Elephant Conservation Centre in Laos. So it seems like no accident that she found her way to Nairobi to join us at STE. In her own words, Pooja feels like she has been prepping for this role her entire life and is thrilled at the opportunity to contribute to STE’s important mission.

Dr Lydia Tiller is the Elephant and Bees Research and Science Manager who coordinates our field research and data collection. She helps to supervise student projects, interns and staff in the field. Lydia is taking a lead on our collared elephant project, hoping to gain a better understanding of elephant movement and elephant crop raiding behaviour across the Tsavo ecosystem. Lydia is also an editor for the journal ‘Pachyderm’ which is a specialist journal about elephants and rhinos.

Lydia joined our team in January 2018 after completing her PhD at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent. Her research looked at how land-use change in the Trans Mara district in Kenya is driving human-elephant conflict and elephant movement. Prior to conducting her PhD, Lydia worked in Thailand, studying elephant cognition, and also worked on a seabird project in Oregon. She completed her MSc in Wild Animal Biology from the Royal Veterinary College and Zoological Society of London. For her MSc project, Lydia investigated the use of unpalatable crops as a mitigation method to deter crop raiding wildlife.

Maureen is the Elephant and Bees Community Livelihoods and Education Manager. She is a trained Social Worker with an MA in Global Studies (Sociology and Political Science) from the University of Freiburg, Germany (2009 -2011). An MSc in Conservation and Rural Development from Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent, United Kingdom (2017- 2018).

She joined the team in December 2018. She previously worked with the European Union’s Food Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNS&SA) project as a Junior Monitoring and Evaluation Expert, Brussel Office (2017) and Kenya Delegation (2015 – 2016). During her career in the agriculture sector, Maureen noticed that communities living near protected areas and in the Arid and Semi-Arid regions of Kenya are the worst hit by food insecurity due to drought coupled with human-wildlife conflict (HWC). This drove her to study further on how to improve community livelihoods and improve tolerance for different wildlife species.

For her MSc, Maureen investigated factors that drive tolerance towards damage causing elephants in Amboseli and the impact livelihood development projects have towards changing negative attitudes towards wildlife and improving tolerance. She plans to continue with this research and contribute towards an understanding of how attitudes can be improved for human-wildlife coexistence.

Ewan joined the Elephant and Bees team in early 2018 as the Operations Manager – coordinating the research camp and heading the Elephants and Bees Mobile Unit. He completed his MSc in Wildlife Conservation from University College London in 2015 following a BSc in Zoology from the University of Manchester. Research projects took him to the forests of Ecuador and northeastern China to study biodiversity and human-wildlife interactions.

After graduating he went on to work seasonally in Scottish Wildcat conservation, close to family he has in the North of the country. Drawn to the more exciting and promising prospects for nature conservation, he undertook two internships in 2017; first researching with the Cape Leopard Trust in South Africa and then at the Elephants and Bees Project. After a brief visit home, he returned as a full-time member of the team.

Dr Benson Okita-Ouma, PhD., MBS. (Ben or Okita) holds a Bachelor degree in wildlife management from Moi University, Kenya; A Masters degree in Conservation Biology from the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, and is a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Resource Ecology from the Wageningen University in the Netherlands where he studied density dependence reproductive performance in black rhino. He worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service for 18 years serving in different capacities in the department of species conservation and management. His latest duties included the senior scientist and national rhino coordinator at Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) for nearly 9 years and later acted as the head of Conservation Programmes at KWS. Okita has served as a member of the IUCN-SSC-African Rhino Specialist Group since 2003 and in 2010 he was appointed to the position of the Deputy Chair of this IUCN group. Okita is also a member of the editorial board of the Pachyderm Journal that publishes biannually peer reviewed articles on elephants and rhinos. He has represented Kenya at several meetings of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES – www.cites.org) and made significant contributions on behalf of the Government particularly in the amendments of CITES resolutions aimed at ensuring illegal trade in rhino horn does not impede rhino conservation. Apart from the conservation work, Ben’s love for children has led him to support education and community development in the Homa Bay County since 2000. In 2008, the former president Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, conferred on him the highest National accolade, the Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS) for his distinguished service to the nation. Okita joins Save The Elephants Organization (STE) as its head of research operations and brings in his coordination and negotiation skills. He is keen to contribute to the vision of STE by using his negotiation skills to highlight the need for inclusion of wildlife corridors and dispersal areas in national planning.

Festus joined Save the Elephants research team in 2005 with a special interest in elephant habitat interactions. He studied the impacts of elephants on the woody plant community along the Ewaso River and observed selective utilization of their bark by elephants. He then joined the team with skills in GIS which opened up a dual role as a GIS analyst.He is also involved in the participatory Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) program where he team leads the harmonization of mortality records. His interests lie in understanding the drivers, spatial and temporal dynamics of poaching across the African elephant range; the subject of his doctoral thesis at the University of Twente, Netherlands. His full profile and publications can be seen here.

Michael is a research assistant, GIS. He is involved mainly on elephant tracking and mapping around the bee-hive fenced farms on the Tsavo Ecosystem. He joined STE in January 2015, after undergoing an internship in our Elephant and Bees project in Sagalla, Tsavo. Michael has Bachelors in Geography, Moi University and has pursued Msc. GIS and Remote Sensing from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. He has previously worked as a GIS project officer at Flametree Systems Engineering Ltd, in Nairobi and later as a GIS consultant at International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) East Africa. At ILRI, he was involved in building up a Geodatabase of biophysical, livelihood and economic variables meant for National Climate Change Action Plan. Michael is keen on applying remote sensing and other geospatial techniques to understand the spatial relationships, interactions and patterns within the wildlife ranges.

Dennis is the assistant accountant at STE. His main duties include assisting the CFAO with managing all STE Kenya accounts and Financial statements ,assisting the CFAO with payroll duties and other statutory obligations, management of Langata office petty cash ,management of STE inventory and disbursement of monthly student allowances. Dennis is a holder of a Bachelor of commerce degree (Finance) from Kenyatta University and is a continuing Certified Public accounts student.

Consolata joined Save the Elephants in March 2015 as an intern in the department of Conservation education. She is mainly involved in conducting conservation lessons in schools that lie within elephant corridors in Samburu and Isiolo Counties. She is also involved in mentorship and tuition programs for STE/EWS scholarship students, as well as, communicating with the education donors. She holds a First Class degree in Environmental Science from Egerton University. She is also registered an Associate expert in Environment Impact Assessment/Audit, by the National Environment Management Authority.

Daud began work at STE three years ago as an intern. He assisted Resson in her education visits to local schools as well as helping with LTM and mammal census. After several months Daud became a permanent staff member, leading mammal surveys in order to keep track of the populations of different species in Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves. In addition he visits schools to teach and show video footage of wildlife to encourage children and the community to support conservation.

David is Head of Field Operations, and has worked for STE for almost two decades now. He has been featured in several films and documentaries (BBC, Nat Geo, etc) and in addition has been quoted severally on the local media houses on wildlife related matters. A Diploma holder in wildlife management, David has been head of Long Term Monitoring program (LTM) and can individually identify about 500 Samburu elephants on sight – a very unique talent. Besides monitoring elephants, he has also participated in over 100 radio collaring operation. Due to the recent surge in poaching, David has been involved in planning and organizing several community meetings, aimed at combating the scourge on ground level and acts as link between the project, communities and the local authority. At the same time, David has been fortunate enough to represent STE during fundraising and awareness events in the US and in China respectively and has good relations with Chinese goodwill ambassadors such as Yao Ming and Li Bingbing.

Gilbert is the Camp Manager at Save the Elephants. He provides direction and logistical support for all field staff in Samburu, while undertaking roles in finance management, administration and database updating. He also hosts and guides interns and visiting researchers, ensuring all their needs are met. His skills as a GIS technician serve him in monitoring elephant movement via STE’s cutting-edge tracking system viewed on Google Earth. He has participated Esri East Africa User Conference and numerous international conferences on Biodiversity, land use and climate change in Nairobi, and the African GIS Google outreach launch in Uganda. Gilbert previously worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service as Rhino research assistant. In 2013, he was nominated for the Project Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation, which he undertook in Washington DC.

Jerenimo is a research assistant at Save the Elephants, where he conducts long-term monitoring of the elephant subpopulation that uses Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserves. Able to recognize over three hundred elephants on sight, Jerenimo takes researchers and interns out to the field; introducing them to the elephant families and to the orphans he also monitors. He takes part in data entry and helps in Monitoring Illegal Killing of the Elephants project (MIKE) in recording carcasses. He designed and is spearheading STE’s community outreach program that has reformed a number of poachers to conservation ambassadors, also is involved in high-level county government campaign meetings. In addition, he assists the anti-poaching patrol team in responding to poaching incidents. Jerenimo participated in elephant’s aerial census in Tsavo and Samburu ecosystem. Previously, he worked as a research assistant for Ewaso Lions, where he helped to identify lions individually in the greater Samburu ecosystem. He expanded his interest in individual recognition of wildlife as an assistant for the Reticulated Giraffe Project, where he collected demographic census data on the population. In 2013/2014 Jerenimo undertook the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders course and was intermittently based in the United States.

David Letitiya is from Ngurunit in northern Kenya. He began work as a research assistant with Save the Elephants in October of 2014. He is part of the long-term monitoring team, and can therefore differentiate approximately 500 elephants on sight. In addition to collecting daily demographic data in the field, David assists with dung collection for the orphan project, helps with collaring operations, and enters all collected data into the long-term database for future analyses. He is also the all-purpose guy in camp, always ready to jump up and do anything that is needed; he can often be found transporting park rangers, helping in emergency situations, and supporting general camp operations. David earned his diploma in wildlife management from the Kenya Wildlife Training Institute in Naivasha, Kenya in 2011. Save the Elephants is his first place of work, and he is appreciative and honored to be a part of the team.

Stanley began work in the research camp as a chef in July of 2015. Prior to working with Save the Elephants, he was a chef at Riverside Camp for five years. This experience has made him an excellent cook, to the joy of everyone living in camp, who welcomed him with open arms. Stanley enjoys a good joke and has a bright smile that lights up the kitchen. He is originally from Machakos, Kenya.