CREA’s Board of Directors

Michael Roy, PhD – founder and board director

Michael founded CREA in 2003. He is an accomplished conservation biologist and earned a doctorate from London University in 1992. He has worked in academic institutions in Europe and the United States before becoming a tenured senior lecturer of zoology at Otago University in New Zealand. He has conducted biological research on a wide variety of terrestrial and marine organisms and has generated over 50 international research papers on evolution and conservation issues.

 

Anita Bair, MA – Director of Development

Anita obtained her BA in Spanish Language and Literature from University College London and in 1986 her Master of Arts degree at the University of London’s Latin American Institute, specializing in Anthropology, Archeology and Geography. A qualified instructor in communication skills for professionals, Anita is equally comfortable using her talents to promote CREA in high powered private sector fields as well as with poor farmers in the Central America.

 

Anton (Twan) Leenders, PhD – Board Member

Twan is President of the Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History, New York. He has vast experience of working as a conservation scientist in both North and South America. His passion for herpetology has made him the world’s expert on Central American amphibians. Author of A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica and The Wildlife of Costa Rica – A Field Guide, a third guide to Central American herpetofauna is due for release in 2016.

 

Clay Bolt – Board Member

Clay is an award winning natural history and conservation photographer whose work and projects have been featured by the Nature Conservancy, Scientific American, Outdoor Photographer, New Scientist and Audubon Magazine, among others. Clay works for the World Wildlife Fund as an official photographer and communications expert, and regularly organises photography workshops in Cocobolo Nature Reserve.

 

CREA Field Staff

Stéphane De Greef – Resident Scientist

Stéphane De Greef is a Belgian bioengineer, cartographer and nature photographer currently based in Cocobolo Nature Reserve, Panama. He has worked around the world, conducting countless projects on cartography, humanitarian mine action, environment and archaeology. After playing a key role in the discovery of the lost city of Mahendraparvata in Cambodia in 2013 and being named one of the best tour guides in the world by The Guardian UK, he now focus on his research on the arthropods diversity of the neotropics and his photography work, most notably for the Meet Your Neighbours project.

 

Pocho Pereira – Field Station Manager/Logistician

 

Abel Batista – Herpetologist

Abel Batista Ph.D. is a biologist by profession and nature lover by passion. With 15 years of field experience in Panama, Costa Rica and Colombia, he has conducted several studies of wildlife rescue, monitoring and research. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí, Panama, graduate studies at the University of Bogota, Colombia Andes and PhD at the Senckenberg Institute (in association with the Goethe University), Frankfurt, Germany, all focused on the study of amphibians and reptiles. His main interest is bioacoustics, interaction between anuran communities, biogeography and taxonomy of amphibians and reptiles of Panama.

 

Alex Shepack – Herpetologist

Alex Shepack is a doctoral candidate at Southern Illinois University where he studies the conservation and genetics of imperiled amphibian species. He has a history of herpetological research in the Neotropics having worked in Panama, Costa Rica and Peru over the last 10 years. In addition to conducting field and lab work for his personal research, Alex has participated in field expeditions in the Andes mountains documenting herpetological diversity and searching for new species. Alex is also heavily involved in outreach and education in the US and Central America where he works with students from elementary school to university.

 

Edwin Campbell Thompson – Ornithologist