People

Founder: Michael Roy Ph.D.
Michael is British but has lived in more countries than most people have had hot dinners (British expression meaning a lot). His passion for conservation led him to create CREA in 2003 and start working on what is now Cocobolo Nature Reserve in 2005. He helped build the station with support from local communities and now currently leads operations, fundraising and likes to get lost in tropical forests and teach when not doing other less important things.

Kurt

Board Member: Kurt Niznik
Kurt has been an avid birder and conservationist since he was a kid. He is especially knowledgable in the Birds of Panama and Colombia and works extensively on birding research and tours in this region. In his spare time he makes great wines in Napa, California where he currently lives.

Scientist: Lucy Hughes
Lucy Hughes is a wildlife biologist specialising in remote sensing; camera trapping has been her thing since installing her first cam in 2010 on her nature reserve home in South Africa. What she discovered drew her back to education where she gained an MSc in wildlife biology and conservation. Now she plans to take camera-traps to another level, literally, in an arboreal study at Cocobolo.

Legal and Accounts: Kristy Ponce 
Kristy is Panamanian and a lawyer. Kristy helped with the formation of CREA and its incorporation in Panama. She currently deals with all the legal stuff and keeps her head cool when we present her with tons of receipts to file. Kristy loves to work, so its only fair that we keep her happy.

Logistics and Fundraising: Anita Bair M.A.
Anita has been there from the start, having helped with the search for the perfect piece of land and the building of the field station at Cocobolo Nature Reserve. Anita helps with all the behind the scene things, like booking hotels, buses and designing menus as well as trying to woo donors into funding us.

Board Member: Twan Leenders Ph. D.
Twan, originally from the Netherlands, has a very authentic American accent, until he stands up and you realise that he has to be Dutch. Twan loves everything poisonous and can often be found sticking his hands into bags full of venomous reptiles. He loves to wander the forests at night as well as write field guides on amphibians and reptiles of Central America.

Herp Expert: Alex Shepack Ph.D.
Alex is a specialist on chytrid disease and its epidemiology on several species of neotropical frog species. Alex, will stop at nothing to get the most prized specimens, even once diving into the composting toilets to retrieve an amphisbaena! Alex loves to teach and wander the forests at night.

Great Supporter: David Abernathy Ph.D.
David is a professor of geography at Warren Wilson College and first came to Cocobolo in 2008. He loves it so much that he comes back every year on his birthday. David collaborated with CREA to deploy environmental sensors in Cocobolo and helped create some of the early maps of the reserve. When not doing suicidal hikes for 3 days in the forest David can often be found nursing a bottle of Chilean wine in a bag.

Great Supporter: Clay Bolt
Photographer extraordinaire, Clay is the co-founder of Know Your Neighbours. He knows a thing or two about making documentaries too, having created the acclaimed documentary A Ghost in the Making. He absolutely loves Cocobolo Nature Reserve and has been an ardent spokesperson for its cause.

Great Supporter: John McGee Ph.D.
John is a professor of geography at Virginia Tech and brings his students out every year to visit the reserve. John helped CREA to obtain a high-resolution image of Cocobolo using a very expensive drone that he “never crashed”. This map is now being used for our GIS work.

Great Supporter: Trev Hughes
Trev is a jack of all trades and can fix anything. Often seen with his head in the engine of a car or sawing wood or feeding electric wire through conduit, Cocobolo keeps him very busy. He also loves nature and exploration so is perfectly suited to the wilds of Cocobolo’s forests. He’ll give anything a go and through his thrill seeking nature, has realised that he has a knack for chocolate making using locally sourced Cocobolo cacoa. The end product, raw but heavenly chocolate, has been renamed “Chocobolo”.