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Lacy with an okapi at Brookfield Zoo.
interactions, and human activities into comprehensive
assessments of impacts on wildlife populations.
Relatedly, as a consequence of the work I have done
to improve species risk assessments and evaluation of
species conservation strategies, I am confident that some
species will persist that otherwise would have been lost
forever. Their survival was never due to me alone, as my
work had to rely on and be integrated with the efforts
of many others, but my contributions allowed the
necessary collaborations to succeed. I cannot know
which of the many species that I have worked on, or
the many more species that benefitted from other con-
servationists using my methods, will survive because of
those efforts. But knowing that some species will persist
because of my work is the greatest legacy that I can leave. Commission, and building partnerships among conser-
What has been your favorite part
of working for the Society?
The support expressed by the Society’s leadership, the
management, staff at all levels, and many volunteers for
the conservation work that I do. I know that much of
my work happens in the background, and isn’t neces-
sarily seen day-to-day at the zoo. Yet I have always been
supported in pursuing directions and projects
that allowed me to most effectively apply my skills to
solving conservation problems. This included times
of pursuing experimental research on the impacts of
inbreeding on animals, developing optimal methods
for managing wildlife breeding programs, developing
computer models to assess threats to species in the
wild, taking on leadership roles in the International
Union for Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival
vation organizations to further advance conservation
science and applying it to developing effective species
conservation strategies.
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