Allison Sacerdote-Velat – Keynote Speaker for 2017 CFC Annual Mtg.

CFC is pleased to announce Allison Sacerdote-Velat as our keynote speaker for the 46th Annual Meeting.

Allison will be delivering a talk titled: “Smooth Greensnake Conservation in Chicago Wilderness”.

For more info on the Annual Meeting, click here.

 

 

Allison’s Bio:

Allison Sacerdote-Velat is currently the Curator of Herpetology at the Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. Previously a reintroduction biologist at Lincoln Park Zoo. She worked collaboratively with the Lake County Forest Preserve District on conservation and recovery planning for smooth green snakes an Illinois “species in greatest need of conservation.” Her work entailed field sampling, population assessment and habitat evaluation of smooth green snakes in northern Illinois and planning for a smooth green snake captive-breeding and head-starting the program.
Sacerdote-Velat completed her doctoral work at Northern Illinois University, studying the reintroduction of extirpated amphibians into restored flatwoods wetlands in northern Illinois. Prior to her work at Lincoln Park Zoo, she was a wildlife biologist with a variety of state wildlife agencies, universities, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the National Park Service. She had the opportunity to work with a wide array of wildlife, including white-tailed deer, sharp-tailed sparrows, desert tortoise, eastern hognose snakes, turtles, phainopeplas, small mammals and amphibians.

(photos provided by Allison Sacerdote-Velat)