Courtney Coon

Courtney is a central California native with a bachelors in animal biology from UC Davis and a PhD from the University of South Florida. She is interested in examining the role of host and environmental variation in animal health. For her graduate degree, she primarily investigated the ecological interactions between a recently invaded songbird, its native competitors, and their shared parasites in Kenya. She then worked for two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pretoria in South Africa where she studied infection incidence and immunity in wild African buffalo inside a wildlife preserve and domestic cattle that live near the preserve boundaries. She's been working at Felidae Conservation Fund for the Bay Area Puma Project since June 2016.

Zara McDonald

MBA from the Haas Business School at UC Berkeley, wildlife ecology graduate studies, vet technician, and have led startup ventures in the technology, biotechnology and investment industries.

I formed Felidae in 2006 to employ a new conservation model targeting complete ecosystem health and preservation of biodiversity. I have worked on four continents to advance the conservancy of in situ wild felid populations in some of the most remote regions on the planet, and currently direct the Bay Area Puma and Bobcat Projects in the SF Bay Area.

As a trail ultra-runner, and former competitive marathoner, I value the presence of native felids in the wild places of the Bay Area. I hope our work can raise public awareness and appreciation for the natural world, and draw support for this increasingly fragile ecosystem,

Bradley Nichols

Brad is originally from southeastern Ohio and received his bachelors degree in Wildlife Resources from the University of Idaho in Moscow in 2005. He earned a masters degree from Utah State University in Logan in 2017 while conducting research on mountain lion prey composition, kill rates, and resource selection in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Shaver Lake, CA. He has always had an interest in carnivore research, conservation, and public outreach/education. Prior to his graduate work, Brad spent 7 years studying fishers and assisting the Integral Ecology Research Center with studies focused on mesocarnivores such as bobcats, grey foxes, martens, and ringtails also in the Sierras of CA; researched lynx in northern Maine, red wolves and black bears at the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in NC, and black bears in OK. He also spent time volunteering at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, MT and the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary in Ramah, NM; as well as, worked as assistant education director and animal enrichment/caretaker at the Beartooth Nature Center in Red Lodge, MT. He has been working at Felidae Conservation Fund for the Bay Area Puma Project since September of 2017.