Congratulations to the 2019 CWF Women & Wildlife Service Award honoree Dorothy ‘Dede’ Manera, Senior Special Agent at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Join us to celebrate Dede, and the four other 2019 Women & Wildlife Award honorees, on Wednesday, November 13 at 6 PM. Purchase events tickets and find more information.

Over the course of Dede’s 27 years as a Senior Special Agent, she has used her investigative talents to protect and preserve New Jersey native species as well as exotic wildlife trafficked in our state. She has been part of an elite team of wildlife agents, conducted and participated in many successful joint investigations and enforcement efforts with NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife conservation officers and selflessly dedicated her time to mentoring young conservation officers.

Congratulations to the 2019 CWF Women & Wildlife Leadership Award honoree Nellie Tsipoura, PhD, Senior Research Scientist and Director of Citizen Science at the New Jersey Audubon Society

Join us to celebrate Nellie and the four other 2019 Women & Wildlife Award honorees on Wednesday, November 13th at 6 PM. Purchase events tickets and find more information.

Join us to honor Gretchen and the four other 2019 Women & Wildlife Award Honorees on Wednesday, November 13th at 6 PM. Purchase events tickets and find more information.

Gretchen has been a biologist/GIS Specialist with NJ’s Endangered & Nongame Species Program (ENSP) for the past 15 years. She grew up in western Massachusetts, received a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Carleton College in Minnesota, and spent her summers while in college as a wilderness ranger in Wyoming and assisting with black bear research in North Carolina. After living in Oregon and Vermont for a few years, working as a vet tech and volunteering for conservation organizations among other things, she then went on to earn a Master’s degree in Wildlife Ecology from Idaho State University studying bighorn sheep.

A life-long interest in nature led Giselle Chazotte Smisko to pursue a B.S. in biology at Bucknell University with a focus on ecology and botany.  Upon graduating in 1979 she started working as a part-time naturalist for the Morris County Park Commission and realized she needed to learn more about fauna the public would want to see on the walks.  That brought her to Len and Diane Soucy who were rehabilitating wild birds.