Introducing our 2023 Wildlife Society Sponsorship Winners
The Western Section Meeting Professional Development Sponsorship provides students and early career professionals with an opportunity to develop their career and attend The Wildlife Society - Western Section Annual Meeting.
This sponsorship is available every year to those living or studying in California, Nevada or Hawaii. If you are interested in applying for our 2024 sponsorship, follow us on social media to see when the next round is open!
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Janelle Chojnacki
Whilst studying at Humbold State university Janelle has been studying common ravens and has a long term interest in wildlife management and wildlife conscious farming. She has also spent time as an instructor for Cal Poly Humboldt’s Conclave Course and is excited to share and see all the research that will be featured at the conference.
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Jennifer Duryea
In 2020 Jennifer decided to change carreer path and return to school to focus on conservation and land management. On her new journey she has already worked with Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, interned with the City of Oakland’s Environmental Stewardship Department, and volunteered for the National Park Service at Point Reyes National Seashore.
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Maya Briones
As an undergraduate student studying habitat restoration at San Jose State University, two of Mayas favourite courses were Coastal Field Studies and Coastal Wetlands. She thoroughly enjoys identifying coastal plants, animals, and structures and has created a plant identification handbook that the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District used to educate their staff. As her career develops she wishes to learn more about equity and green space access as well as expanding upon her passion for herpetology.
Meet our 2022 Wildlife Society Sponsorship Winners
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Wendy Zamora
Third year Undergraduate at the University of California
Wendy is studying the interdisciplinary major Conservation and Resource Studies, with her courses focusing on Wildlife Ecology and GIS. So far, her deepest interests have been sparked the animal behavior and landscape ecology classes.
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Tali Caspi
PhD Candidate at UC DAVIS
Tali's research focuses on how animals respond to urbanization. More specifically, her current research with the Mammalian Ecology and Conservation Unit explores the nutritional ecology of urban coyotes in San Francisco with the aim of clarifying functional links and feedbacks among the diet, social structure, and physiology of urban carnivores.
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Slaney Stringer
First year Master's Student at Chico State University.
Slaney graduated from CSU Chico with a Bachelors degree in Biological Sciences in Spring 2021, and decided to continue pursuing the field that allowed her to be outside and study what she loves. She grew up in Placerville, a small mountain town in Northern California, where her passion for wildlife and the outdoors was cultivated. She has always been curious about interactions in the environment and always wanted to work in the field of conservation or ecology.
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Jessica Copeland
Jessica is the new Environmental Scientist for the Statewide Bobcat Monitoring Project in Region 4 of California.
Jessica graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Animal Science from Cal Poly, SLO back in 2016. Recently, she has been exploring a new passion of her’s: the Spanish language. She has taken introductory through advanced Spanish classes at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria and attended a Tropical Ecology & Conservation Leadership Field Course in Costa Rica where she practiced speaking Spanish in a research setting.