Our network of experts

The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is made up of over 30 Chapters worldwide - who lead on both local conservation in their own countries, as well as a range of programs in chimpanzee habitats across Africa. Alongside our founder, Dr Jane Goodall, there are a large number of well-respected conservationists and experts within the JGI Network - a selection are highlighted below.

Please contact JGI Global (mail@janegoodall.global) should you wish to contact any of the experts below. 

Dr Lilian Pintea
 
Dr Lilian Pintea brings more than twenty years of experience in using satellite imagery and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to the job of conserving chimpanzees and their vanishing habitats in Africa. As Vice President of Conservation Science at the Jane Goodall Insistute USA, Lilian directs the scientific department at the Institute and conducts applied conservation research.

Recognised for his expertise in applying cutting-edge geospatial technology to conservation needs in Africa, Lilian has presented invited talks to a variety of conferences, including Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, IUCN World Conservation Congress, Eye on Earth Summit, EIS-Africa GIS, Esri International Users Conference, Map World Forum, and DigitalGlobe Users Conference.

Lilian holds a PhD in conservation biology from the University of Minnesota and an M.S. in zoology from Moscow State University, Russia. He is a former MacArthur Scholar of the MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change, Sustainability, and Justice at the University of Minnesota and a former Fulbright Scholar in the use of geospatial technologies at the Center for Remote Sensing at the University of Delaware.

With frequent trips to the field in Sub-Saharan Africa, Lilian lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Dr Rebeca Atencia

Dr Rebeca Atencia serves as the Executive Director of the Jane Goodall Institute in the Congo, and the Manager and Head Veterinarian at the Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Centre.

Originally from Ferrols, Spain, Rebeca earned her veterinary degree at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Before joining JGI, she served as chief veterinarian at Aitana Safari Zoological Park in Alicante, Spain, as an advisory veterinarian for Sanctuary of Primates, and as a veterinarian and chief of camp for HELP-Congo, an organisation that rehabilitates and reintroduces chimpanzees to the wild.


Zara Bending

Zara Bending is a Board member at JGI Australia and an Associate at the Centre for Environmental Law (Macquarie University). She is an award-winning lecturer with multiple commendations for teaching excellence, and in 2013 received a Vice Chancellor's Teaching Award in the category ‘Programs that Enhance Learning’.

Zara’s research draws on her expertise in criminal, environmental, and health law, with interdisciplinary inputs from criminology, sociology, bioethics, and historiography. Her current research examines the effectiveness of domestic and international legal frameworks in tackling the illicit wildlife trade.


Dr Rick Quinn

Dr Rick Quinn is Chair of JGI Canada’s Africa Programs Committee - and also sits as a Board Member on the JGI Global Board.
Rick is a veterinary ophthalmologist in private referral practice, with academic experience in teaching, research, and lecturing internationally.

The Founding Director of Docs4GreatApes, Rick is passionate about humanitarian, conservation and social justice issues in developing countries. He is a strong proponent of the One Health approach to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. 


Andie Ang

Primatologist Andie Ang is President of JGI Singapore. Andie obtained her PhD in Biological Anthropology from the University of Colorado Boulder, working on the population genetics and dietary profiles of Vietnamese leaf-eating monkeys.

She currently manages the Raffles' Banded Langur Working Group, and is also part of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group (Asia).


Laia Dotras

Laia Dotras is the Research Co-director of the Jane Goodall Institute Spain and Senegal. 

She has both a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Masters degree in Primatology from the University of Barcelona. Laia’s first steps in the field of primatology were taken in 2002 when she conducted a study into the rehabilitation and resocialisation of rescued chimpanzees at Mona Foundation’s Primate Rehabilitation Centre in Spain. 

In 2006, she arrived in Sierra Leone to volunteer at Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, looking after the rescued chimpanzees and conducting an environmental education programme. Also in Sierra Leone, she participated in a survey conducted in 2008, to assess large mammal diversity and chimpanzee density at Loma Mountains Non-hunting Forest Reserve. The results obtained led, a few years later, to the upgrading of this important area for chimpanzee conservation to the status of National Park. 

In 2009, Laia travelled to the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to work in a community-centred conservation programme around Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Centre. In 2011, she started teaching primate conservation at several Spanish universities, and since 2017, Laia has worked in the research, conservation, sustainable development and education programmes of Jane Goodall Institute Spain in Senegal and Guinea. 

Laia focuses her research on the ecology and behaviour of the critically endangered western chimpanzees so that better decisions can be made about how to protect them and preserve their habitat, and how to mitigate conflicts between humans and chimpanzees in a challenging landscape of coexistence.


Stany Nyandwi

Stany Nyandwi is Primate Manager at JGI’s Chimp Eden Sanctuary in South Africa.

Now an expert chimpanzee linguist and conservationist, Stany has overcome a series of extraordinary challenges in his life.

Born in rural Burundi in 1968, his childhood was blighted by the country’s civil war. He lost both his parents and his younger brother in the conflict, and by the age of 15 was working in slave-like conditions as a houseboy in Burundi’s capital, Bujumbura.

After four years he escaped, and began to work for the Jane Goodall Institute in the city. Here Stany discovered that he had the exceptional ability to develop bonds and communicate with chimpanzees. Such was Stany’s talent that Jane began referring to him as ‘The Chimpanzee Whisperer.’

In subsequent years Stany overcame battles with addiction, as well as facing the threat of imprisonment and death. In 1995, he fled Burundi to continue his work with orphaned chimps in Kenya, and later, at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda.

Stany’s chimpanzee care and husbandry techniques are now celebrated around the world. He has won several global conservation awards for his pioneering work.


Dr Marc Fourrier

Dr Marc Fourrier is Director of Great Ape Conservation, at the Jane Goodall Institute U.S.

Marc is a primatologist and conservation biologist with 25 years of experience in primate ecology & evolution research, program design, conservation strategy (action planning) development and spatial analysis. Since 1995, he has lived for more than 12 years in Africa leading research and conservation projects in some of the most remote locations in Senegal, Guinea, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo and Gabon. Marc earned his Ph.D. in Bioanthropology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, for his research on impacts of the western lowland gorilla ranging and foraging on the forests of the Central African Congo Basin.  

Marc has taught courses in human evolution, primate evolution and ecology, statistics, and GIS at the university level.
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