Board of Directors and Advisors

© Hoangchi Dung, Douc Langur Foundation

IPPL Board of Directors

All board members are independent voting members.

Deborah Misotti,
Chairwoman

2. Deborah Missoti

Deborah Misotti, an IPPL supporter for more than 40 years, has been working with primates for almost thirty years. Debbie, along with her husband, Tom, created The Talkin’ Monkeys Project primate sanctuary with an emphasis on the education of the next generation of conservationists.  The Talkin’ Monkeys Project was created in 1999, with guidance over the years from Shirley McGreal.

This entity has become affiliated with many colleges and universities around the world as a community partner. Debbie’s experience as VP of the Hendry County Leadership Council led to her creation of a Youth Leadership program established through the sanctuary for this County. Several Florida counties have replicated this program as a strong legacy combining Volunteering and Service Learning.

These programs have led to the sanctuary sending many of its volunteers as Interns to sanctuaries and educational opportunities around the world.  Her students have come from Florida Gulf Coast University, University of Florida, University of Maryland, Duke University, and the University of Southern California, to name a few here in the USA.  International students have come from Oxford Brooks University, University of Glasgow, the University of St Andrews in the UK, Lund University in Sweden, Australian National University, and Seoul University, South Korea.  Students have attended the IPPL Conferences as her guests. These meetings and the educational sanctuary concept have inspired many of her students to pursue careers as primatologists, researchers, environmental educators, and many other varied careers around the globe.

Sian Evans,
Secretary

sian-evans

Dr. Sian Evans was born in the United Kingdom. She also received her Ph.D. from the University of Wales in 1981. Dr. Evans interest in primatology started when she met Porky, the alpha male in a group of pigtail monkeys, at the London Zoo and studied the social dynamics of his group. During her career, Dr. Evans has been the managing director of the DuMond Conservancy for Primates and Tropical Forests in Miami, travels to Colombia to lecture Colombian students on enforcing international laws in the trade of primates, was the founding vice president for education for the International Primatological Society, and was awarded the Presidential Medal from the American Society of Primatologists.

Dr. Evans now lives on a horse ranch in Miami with her retired veterinarian husband, Dr. Robert Cooper, and she herself teaches in the Department of Biological Sciences and the Honors College at Florida International University. They have a daughter: Seren, who was a “Teach for America” chemistry teacher at North Miami Beach Senior High and now is now teaching at Southridge High School.  Their son Evan, a former US Marine, was a student at Lynn University when he unexpectedly died several years ago. Sian misses him every single day.

Alison Harvey,
Treasurer

Treasurer photo (1)

Alison Harvey was born and raised in Mount Kisco, New York, a small town in the Hudson River Valley. Growing up as an "only" child, Alison always preferred animals to the company of people. Although Alison is a professionally trained classical violinist and private music studio owner, her daily life includes an abundant interaction with animals. She is an independent, volunteer animal rescuer who has worked with many no-kill rescue organizations over the last 40 years. She has served on the Board of Directors of animal shelters in the states of Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina.  In Florida, she was a driver /  transporter for a Greyhound Rescue organization. In Alaska, she was a Grassroots Lobbyist, fighting to ban aerial hunting of wolves, and the poaching of bears.

Alison volunteered at IPPL in 1986 and 1987, and in 1988 she became an IPPL office staff employee.  Although Alison moved out of state during the 1990s and then returned in 2000, she always remained a close friend of IPPL's Founder, Shirley McGreal.  Alison joined the IPPL Board of Directors in 2020 as Treasurer.  She currently lives in Summerville, eight miles from the IPPL Sanctuary.

Sam Shanee

6. Sam Shanee #1

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.

Ian Redmond, OBE

3. Ian Redmond,

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 19 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)
  • Dr. S.M. Mohnot (Central and West India)
  • 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)

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 10 members.

  • Dr. James Alcock
  • Dr. Frances Burton
  • Dr. Jane Goodall
  • Rosalind Hanson-Alp
  • J. Mangalraj Johnson
  • Ann Koros
  • Dr. Iqbal Malik
  • Heather McGiffin Teleki
  • Dr. William McGrew
  • Dr. Vernon Reynolds