People Type: Staff

Marcela is native to Córdoba, Argentina, where she lives in Miramar de Ansenuza, a small town on the shore of Mar Chiquita Lake, one of the very first WHSRN sites (designated in 1989). She joined the WHSRN Executive Office team in 2019 as a Flyway Conservation Specialist, focused on the conservation of saline lakes. Among her activities, Marcela is working on an update of the Wilson’s Phalarope conservation plan and developing a protocol for boreal winter/austral summer surveys for the species. She is also working to strengthen the connections between communities and conservation efforts at inland salt lakes, with a primary focus on existing WHSRN sites. From 2014 until recently, Marcela was one of the two site representatives for Mar Chiquita Lake to the Argentine WHSRN Council.

Marcela has a degree in Biology from the National University of Córdoba (UNC), where she is currently undertaking PhD studies on the non-breeding ecology of Wilson’s Phalarope in central Argentina. Her odyssey with phalaropes began in 2012 at Great Salt Lake (Utah), where she spent the summer working on breeding ecology and habitat use as part of the Linking Communities initiative, sponsored by the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service, Rio Tinto, Weber State University and BirdLife International. In 2013 she received a scholarship from National Audubon Society and the Weber State University to continue her work with the species at Great Salt Lake.

In recent years Marcela has been involved in many education and outreach activities in central Argentina, with the goal of involving her community in conservation activities and raising awareness of the importance of WHSRN sites for biodiversity preservation.

Salvadora is a native of Nicaragua. She joined the Manomet team in 2019 as a Shorebird Conservation Specialist with the WHSRN Executive Office. She is responsible for exploring opportunities to coordinate and promote best management practices in shrimp aquaculture and salt production to benefit shorebirds. She helps coordinate the Migratory Shorebird Project in Central America, in addition to the Central American Waterbird Census, and works to promote the conservation, protection, and management of habitat for shorebirds in Central America.

Salvadora has worked in bird conservation for 18 years. She coordinated the Institute for Bird Population’s MoSI program in Central America (Monitoring Neotropical Migrants in Winter, MoSI by its Spanish acronym). She worked with Fauna and Flora International, where she was the coordinator of the Management, Conservation, and Climate Change Adaptation program on the island of Ometepe. She led the process to establish Ometepe as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Later, she worked with the organization ICCO Cooperation on the Mesoamerican Alliance of People and Forests initiative, facilitating the development and implementation of forest management and indigenous land rights projects. Salvadora is a founding partner of Quetzalli Nicaragua where, through the support of BirdLife International and US Forest service, and later the WHSRN Executive Office, she coordinated the first shorebird monitoring efforts in the Gulf of Fonseca. These surveys led to the nomination of the Delta del Estero Real as a WHSRN Site. Recently, in coordination with National Audubon Society and the WHSRN Executive Office, she completed an assessment of the shrimp aquaculture industry in Central America and its overlap with key areas for shorebirds.

Why Manomet?

I work at Manomet because I believe that the solution to the environmental, social and economic problems of our world is in the hands of human beings. I firmly believe that decision-making must be based on field science and knowledge management. I am proud to be part of an organization whose mission and focus is based on human relations and on-the-ground science to conserve our biodiversity and create a sustainable world.

Alan is a Conservation Biologist at Manomet, where he is involved in a variety of science initiatives. His current priorities include the expansion of Manomet’s shorebird research in eastern Massachusetts, as well as contributing to Whimbrel conservation efforts in the Atlantic Flyway. Alan also helps manage science and education at Manomet Observatory, with a particular interest in monitoring songbird populations at their long-term banding station and the restoration of retired cranberry bogs into wetland habitat.

Rob Clay has been active in migratory bird conservation in the Western Hemisphere for more than 20 years. A native of the United Kingdom, his interest in Neotropical birds and conservation began during an undergraduate expedition to Paraguay in 1992, which led to Ph.D. studies of manakins in Costa Rica and Panama.

Prior to joining the WHSRN Executive Office (and Manomet) in May 2014, Rob worked for BirdLife International as Senior Conservation Manager in the Americas Secretariat. There, he led the development of conservation programs for a wide variety of migratory birds and globally threatened species. He was instrumental in building BirdLife’s Southern Cone Grasslands Alliance, a coalition of cattle ranchers, government agencies, research institutions, and conservation organizations working together in the South American Pampas grasslands.

Through his role at BirdLife, Rob worked closely with WHSRN staff and site partners over the years. He also served on the WHSRN Hemispheric Council, and is a past Chair of the Waterbird Conservation Council, and former Vice President of the Heron Specialist Group (HeronConservation). He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Atlantic Flyway Shorebird Initiative, the Steering Committees of the Pacific and Midcontinent Shorebird Conservation Initiatives, the Americas Steering Committee of the Arctic Migratory Bird Initiative, and a Conference of the Parties Appointed Scientific Councilor for Birds to the Convention on Migratory Species.

In 1997, Rob helped found Guyra Paraguay – now the country’s leading conservation NGO, and he has called Paraguay home ever since (except for two years in Ecuador). Rob and his family live in Asunción, where he conducts regular monitoring of shorebirds at the Asunción Bay WHSRN site.

Why Manomet?

It takes a special kind of organization to coordinate, guide, and oversee the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network – a complex network of organizations and individuals working across languages, cultures, and social and political divisions. Manomet is such an organization – willing to listen and learn from partners, to share experiences and opportunities, and to make a long-lasting commitment to finding innovative solutions to local problems while tackling global drivers of threats.

Isadora is Colombian by origin and joined the Manomet team in May 2018. She is in charge of promoting the incorporation of shorebirds within national conservation agendas, assessing the uses of resources at WHSRN sites, and building the capacity of partners in ecosystem service assessments. Isadora has been working on the conservation of birds in Colombia and throughout the Western Hemisphere for over 15 years.

Isadora gained her conservation experience through working on research in the field and through engaging with communities in her native Colombia as part of Asociacion Calidris, moving later to Southeast Asia to work in conservation of endangered and traded species. Before joining Manomet Isadora worked since 2011 for the BirdLife International Americas Secretariat as the Americas Flyways Coordinator, including representing BirdLife on the WHSRN Hemispheric Council. At BirdLife she supported the development of conservation programs for grassland birds and migratory birds including globally threatened migratory birds, she also developed and help build BirdLife Partners’ capacities on ecosystem services assessments at site scale.

Isadora is a biologist with a major in ornithology from Universidad del Valle in Colombia, completed a Diploma in Endangered Species Management at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, and University of Kent (UK) and holds a Master in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge (UK).

Why Manomet?

I am proud of being part of the Manomet team as I believe biodiversity conservation depends on multidimensional approaches, and Manomet is a place where such approaches are developed.  The approaches for biodiversity conservation that Manomet develops have their bases on the best science, research effort, community engagement, land management, and land use planning, and strategic partnerships. What conservationist would not want to be part of such an extraordinary team and organization?