Board of Directors and Advisors
© Hoangchi Dung, Douc Langur Foundation
IPPL Board of Directors
All board members are independent voting members.
Sam Shanee,
Board Chairperson
Dr. Sam Shanee was born and raised in London, UK, but has spent the last 25 years traveling and working in the tropics. It was during his travels that he decided to volunteer at a wildlife rescue center in Bolivia, where he fell in love with the work and decided to dedicate his life to conservation. Sam has since worked on various wildlife rescue and reintroduction projects in South America, Asia, and the Middle East, with species ranging from Orangutans and Gibbons, Oryx and Ostrich, to Leopards, Pumas, and Jaguars.Sam received his MSc in Primate Conservation in 2006, and his Ph.D. in 2013, both from Oxford Brookes University in the UK. In 2007 Sam co-founded the NGO Neotropical Primate Conservation, focusing his work on primate conservation through community-based initiatives. Since then, he has permanently lived and worked in Peru, with regular visits to Ecuador and Colombia. He tries to bridge the gap between academia and activism. Sam is also a member of the IUCN primate specialist group, on the council of the Latin American Primatological Society, and a research associate of Oxford Brookes University.
Alison Harvey,
Treasurer
Alison Harvey has been an independent, volunteer animal rescuer for over 40 years. She has worked with many no-kill animal rescue organizations, serving on their boards in North and South Carolina, Florida, and Maryland. She was the director of the Berkeley Chapter SPCA, a non-profit, no-kill rescue organization from 1986-1990 and worked closely with Berkeley County Animal Control on cruelty cases that included rescuing dogs that were bred for fighting. In the early1980s, Alison spent three years in Fairbanks Alaska as a Grassroots lobbyist and fought to end the aerial hunting of wolves and to implement harsher penalties for wildlife poachers.
In 1986 Alison began her decades long association with IPPL and close friendship with Shirley McGreal. At first she volunteered with bulk mailings as well as feeding the gibbons and otters. She also successfully helped hand-raise three orphaned otters at the sanctuary whose mother died shortly after giving birth to them. Alison was also a full-time office employee until she moved away during the 1990s. She maintained her close connection with Shirley. Beginning in 2019 she served on IPPL’s Board of Directors as treasurer and chairperson for several years.
Alison grew up with two family dogs and a cat and preferred spending time with her companion animals over her human friends. She thought she might become a veterinarian, but her life took a different path. Instead, Alison became a professional musician. She is a classical violinist and currently serves as Principal Second Violinist of the Summerville Orchestra and is a member of several performing chamber music groups. She owns and operates a private home teaching studio and instructs approximately twenty students per week on violin, viola and piano.
Alison and Dane, her husband of forty-two years live in an historic home, built in 1862, in downtown Summerville, SC. They have two rescue dogs and eight cats. Alison is active with the local TNR program for feral cats. Alison's grown daughters are active environmentalists and animal welfare advocates. One is a climate reporter for Politico and lives in NYC. The other is a wildlife scientist who divides her time between animal care at a boarding kennel and private pet sitting.
Allison Carden Hanes
Allison Carden Hanes is a trained biologist, veterinary technician, and primatologist specializing in conservation medicine or One Health — the intersection of wildlife, ecosystem and human health. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology and Environmental Studies from University of California, Santa Cruz and a Master's in Primate Conservation from Oxford Brookes University.
Her interdisciplinary work encompasses primatology, marine science, veterinary medicine, public health, human-wildlife interactions/coexistence, community-based conservation, Indigenous rights, sustainable development, deforestation, climate change, ecotourism, community-led grassroots environmental work and more recently disappearing Indigenous knowledge and primate folklore. Now a producer and director, she creates films about her conservation work.
As CEO of One Health Productions LLC, her latest film Gorilla Trekking Film, Uganda was completed during the COVID-19 pandemic in partnership with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, International Gorilla Conservation Programme, Conservation Through Public Health, Re:wild and Conservation International. Based on her MSc research on gorilla trekking protocols for preventing disease transmission, the film and materials are viewed by all tourists entering Uganda. Her longterm major project is a multimedia feature film on singing gibbons and ancient folklore across Asian rainforests, currently in post-production.
She is an Explorers Club fellow and climate committee member, a WINGS Women of Discovery flag carrier serving on the Global Explorers Forum Committee and serves on the Science New Wave programming committee. She is also a member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Asian American Documentary Network, and the D-Word.
Jennifer Cramer
Jennifer Cramer is an anthropologist and primatologist whose interest in primates has taken her to Central America, the Caribbean, and across Africa. In the field, her work has focused on the complex social lives of wild primates and the interconnected health of primates and people.
Over time, Jennifer’s focus has expanded to supporting local communities in education and livelihood initiatives that contribute to the protection of both primates and ecosystems. She believes conservation is most effective when it strengthens the future of both people and wildlife.
Jennifer has held faculty and leadership roles in universities and brings extensive experience in learning and development across higher education and the nonprofit sector. She brings this background to her role on the board, supporting mission-driven work that connects primates, people, and conservation.
Ian Redmond, OBE
Renowned for his 40-year career studying and striving to protect gorillas and elephants, Ian describes himself as a naturalist by birth, a biologist by training, and a conservationist by necessity. His work has ranged from the undercover investigation of wildlife traffickers to helping local conservationists during Africa’s civil wars to consulting on more than 100 documentaries for BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and others. He studied gorillas with Dian Fossey, later assisting Sigourney Weaver when she portrayed Fossey in “Gorillas in the Mist.” Ian works from his office in Stroud, England, consulting for the UN Great Apes Survival Partnership (which he co-founded) and Born Free Foundation, which supports his work as chair of Ape Alliance, chair of the Species Survival Network Primate Working Group, and ambassador for the UN Convention on Migratory Species. He consults to field projects such as Limbe (Cameroon) Wildlife Center, an IPPL partner, and he chairs The Gorilla Organization. His ninth book is The Primate Family Tree: The Amazing Diversity of Our Closest Relatives. Ian is currently using virtual reality and other technologies to make conservation education more widely available.
IPPL Field Representatives
Wherever primates can be found, our Field Representatives work to create and preserve national parks and sanctuaries, promote bans on primate hunting and trapping, and help combat local and international primate trade. IPPL currently has 25 Field Representatives in 21 countries.
- S. Theodore Baskaran (South India)
- Vijay Bhatia (North India)
- Katriona Bradley, DVM (Hong Kong)
- Bernadette Bresard, MD, DVM (France)
- Dr. Roland Corluy (Belgium)
- Olga Feliu, DVM (Spain)
- Dr. Ranjen Fernando (Sri Lanka)
- Evelyn Gallardo (Costa Rica)
- Dr. Gustavo Gandini (Italy)
- Martha Gutierrez (Argentina)
- Bettina Hickman (Zambia)
- Milka Knezevic-Ivaskovic (Serbia)
- Elba Muñoz Lopez (Chile)
- Louis Ng (Singapore)
- David Root (Costa Rica)
- Valerie Sackey (Ghana)
- Josef Schmuck (Austria)
- Jean Senogles (South Africa)
- Lynette Shanley (Australia)
- Dr. Akira Suzuki (Japan)
- Andrzej Szwagrzak (Bolivia)
- David van Gennep (Netherlands)
- Hilko Wiersema (Netherlands)
- Angela Maldonado (Colombia)
IPPL Advisory Board
Our advisors include experts from the fields of zoology, anthropology, medicine, biology, veterinary medicine, and psychology. IPPL's Advisory Board currently consists of 11 members.
- Dr. James Alcock
- Dr. Frances Burton
- Rosalind Hanson-Alp
- J. Mangalraj Johnson
- Ann Koros
- Dr. Iqbal Malik
- Heather McGiffin Teleki
- Dr. William McGrew
- Dr. Vernon Reynolds
- Ofir Drori