Current Board
Past President: Karla Pelz Serrano
CBS Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Lerma, Mexico
Karla is a professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana en Lerma, Mexico. She obtained a B.S. in Biology from the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro, Mexico, a PhD in Natural Resources and Wildlife Management from the University of Arizona. During the last ten years, Karla has worked in wildlife and habitat conservation projects in northwestern Mexico and southwestern U.S., and seen first-hand the degradation of ecosystems to the point where they can no longer sustain native species. This is the reason why she is interested in the conservation and restoration of species and their habitat, and in the identification of important areas for the conservation of biodiversity. Karla has worked on projects for the conservation of the American beaver, black tailed prairie dogs, black-footed ferrets, black bear, and raptors.
Besides her research interests, she is also very interested in the development of new scientists. This is why she has taught different courses to transmit the importance of studying and conserving biodiversity. Teaching courses at the undergraduate and graduate level gave her the opportunity to show students how to generate research projects, how to carry them out and how to communicate their findings. Currently, as a professor at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Lerma, she has the opportunity to aid in the formation of young conservation biologists with a holistic view of the problems that biodiversity faces today. Karla is interested in conducting research on focal species in Mexico that require immediate conservation actions such as the axolotl, the volcano rabbit, flying squirrels, among others.
President: Tsitsi McPherson
University of Alaska Fairbanks - Adjunct
Tsitsi McPherson is a Guyanese ecologist with a PhD and M.Sc. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut (USA) and B.A. in geography and biology from the University of Guyana, Turkeyen (Guyana). Tsitsi is formerly an Assistant Professor of Biology, State University of New York College at Oneonta. Tsitsi's research interests are in landscape scale biodiversity patterns and conservation planning that examines underlying political, economic, and social (socioeconomic and human rights) factors that impact conservation decision making. Tsitsi is also interested in understanding how pro-sustainability behaviours can be leveraged to tailor pro-conservation messages.
She has been involved with the LACA section for over a decade, first as a member of the section and later as LACA’s Director of Nominations and Chief Financial Officer She also served as the section representative on the SCB Policy Committee..She represented the section as the Co-Chair of the Equity, Inclusion and Diversity (EID) committee for the 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023 ICCB providing continuity as SCB addresses issues of equity, inclusion and diversity.
President Elect: Osvaldo Eric Ramirez Bravo
Universidad Autonoma de Puebla, Mexico
Eric Ramírez is a full-time researcher-professor at Universidad Autonoma de Puebla in central Mexico. He holds a Bachelor's degree in biology from Universidad de las Américas, Puebla, a Masters in Natural Resource Management from Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro and a PhD in Biodiversity Management from University of Kent. He has taken several courses on management of endangered species at Africam Safari and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. His research interests cover several aspects of conservation biology, ranging from species biology to environmental education and citizen science. Currently, he directs several projects relating to carnivore conservation, dealing with distribution, ecology and management of otters and felids in central Mexico. He has received funding from National Geographic, Panthera, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and CONACYT. He has published numerous research articles in national and international journals and has given numerous posters and oral presentations in national and international conferences. He is part of the National System of Researchers, of the expert group on “conservation and sustainable use of the jaguar and other wild felids”, of the group on “conservation of tropical otter”, and of several professional groups at national and international levels.
Chief Financial Officer: Janeth Lessmann
The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)
Janeth is a biologist from Venezuela. Janeth earned her PhD in Ecology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile. She completed her undergraduate studies at Universidad Simón Bolívar in Venezuela, and earned a Masters degree in “Biodiversity in Tropical Areas and its Conservation” at Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo in Spain. Janeth is interested in producing policy-relevant, technically rigorous information on how to strengthen area-based conservation measures in tropical regions. Currently, she works at UNEP-WCMC and the Protected Planet Initiative. In her role, she collaborates with global, national and local partners to catalyse official recognition and mapping of “Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures” (OECMs) in key regions..
Secretary: Estefany S. Guerra-Correa
Estefany Sofía Guerra Correa is an Ecuadorian-Colombian biologist who obtained a bachelor degree in Biological Sciences from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. She is a PhD student at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia and member of the research team Animal Behaviour Group. She is passionate about reptiles biology, therefore, her research is focused on the thermal ecology, behavior and physiology of a group of lizards that inhabits the tropical Andes of Ecuador. She is LACA’s Secretary for the 2023-2025 term.
“I decided to join the SCB LACA Board because I want to expand my scientific network and get actively involved in conservation projects in the Latin American Region”
Director of Communications: Nigel Noriega
Nigel Noriega is founder and director of Sustainable Innovation Initiatives (www.sii-inc.org), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization aimed at enabling ecologically sustainable development in tropical forest regions. Nigel was a research biologist until 2012, with prior work in neuroscience, ecology and endocrinology, including some of the earliest assessments of environmental endocrine disruptor effects on amphibian development. Nigel has also served as a biologist for the Endocrine Branch of the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory at the US Environmental Protection Agency. Nigel grew up on the island of Trinidad, earned a Ph.D. in Integrative Biology from the University of California at Berkeley, and has conducted field work in the Caribbean, Africa and the United States.
Director of Membership and Nominations: Javier Fajardo
University of Cambridge
Javier is a conservation scientist interested in understanding how to improve area-based conservation for both people and nature. His focus is on comprehending the social implications of area-based conservation, including the expansion of protected and conserved areas under the Global Biodiversity Framework. He's also enthusiastic about conservation planning, exploring topics such as biodiversity, governance, justice, and the effects of global change. With experience in academia and conservation NGOs, he has a geeky side that enjoys coding and doing spatial analysis, modeling, and statistics. Although not originally from LACA and currently residing in the UK, he regards South America as his second home after a decade of living in Ecuador and Chile. During this time, he thoroughly enjoyed traversing the Andes and tropical forests. Perhaps due to this connection, Javier's research remains centered on the tropical Andes and Latin America, although other regions and global-scale analyses are also part of his interests. As LACA’s Director of Membership and Nominations, his goal is to enhance the LACA section's value for its members and to bring skilled and engaged conservationists to the board. He also collaborates with the board on other broader initiatives.
Director of Education: M. Sofía Agudelo
Sofía is a Wildlife Ecologist with experience conducting field studies in North and South America, including data acquisition, maintenance and analysis, and technical and theoretical expertise. She has a PhD in Wildlife Sciences from Texas A&M University, where her research focused on the effects of habitat use by native and exotic ungulates on cattle fever tick populations in arid rangelands. She has a Master’s degree from New Mexico State University, where she studied the effects of desertification and habitat degradation and grassland fragmentation on grassland birds, and a Bachelor’s degree from Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia, where she studied the natural history of endemic curassows in the Amazon Basin. Sofía’s professional and research experience includes the assessment and characterization of suitable habitat and life history traits for sensitive and threatened/endangered species; behavioral and landscape ecology studies on pre-montane tropical birds and grassland-adapted birds in the US, Colombia, Venezuela, and Mexico; and the application of simulation modeling on the study of population dynamics of pathogens in multi-host systems. Sofía’s work has resulted in several peer-reviewed publications; conceptual and empirical ecological models; and technical documents, including conservation and management plans.
Future Board Members
If you are interested in serving on the Latin America and Caribbean Region Board you must be an associate member or full member of SCB and an associate member or full member of the LACA Region.
Elections are typically held yearly for various positions. See descriptions of terms of reference for position. Each year section members receive an email about the open positions and the start of the election process. For more information about getting involved with this board, please contact lacabd@conbio.org.