Many bird species, like this Yellow-billed Cuckoo in Venezuela, migrate to the Neotropics every winter.

100% of member donations go towards programs. Our staff volunteer their time and donate all administrative and overhead costs.

OFFICERS AND CHAIRS Gary Langham, President Shawn Hayes, Treasurer Kam Langham, Secretary Bryon Daley, REP Chair Peter McIntyre, SGP Chair Jeri Langham, Field Station Chair Linda Moorhouse, Grant Development Chair Jeff DaCosta, Research Equipment Coordinator Valentina Ferretti, Memorial Grant Chair Paulo Llambias, Program Awareness Co-chair Mary Anne Smith, Board Member OTHER STAFF Bradley McCammack, E-Newsletter Editor Maria Adela Davison, Bolivia

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		Gary M. Langham, Ph.D. President Gary is lead scientist and Director of Bird Conservation for Audubon California. He is also a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley, most recently teaching Ornithology. He has worked as a Research Fellow in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at U.C. Berkeley. This postdoctoral position involved a lot of fieldwork in Queensland, Australia studying the effects of climate change on lizards and other vertebrates. Gary holds a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Cornell University, as well as a B.Sc. in English and Biological Sciences from California State University, Sacramento. During his dissertation work, he studied Rufous-tailed Jacamars -- insect eating birds -- and Heliconius butterflies in the grasslands of Venezuela and Bolivia.
Gary is a co-author of the flycatcher accounts in the Handbook of the Birds of the World, vol 9. From 1984 to 2002, he traveled every year to Venezuela as a naturalist, and since 1988 as a professional tour leader for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT). Gary has studied birds or lead tours throughout North America as well as Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Australia As a traveler and guide, he witnessed the yearly destruction of pristine habitat and the clear need to conserve it. As a scientist and researcher, he experienced the dedication of local scientists and museums throughout Latin America first hand. That some of these talented naturalists should lack for basic research equipment has motivated his determination to help these young researchers launch careers in grassland conservation.
		Shawn Hayes, Ph.D. Treasurer Shawn received his Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of California, Davis and currently conducts research on brain circuitry as part of the Human Brain Project at the Center for Neuroscience in Davis, CA. Before becoming a physiologist, Shawn studied the breeding biology of Tree Swallows, olfactory foraging in Turkey Vultures and the neurodevelopment of fish olfactory system. During extensive traveling throughout the world as a young man, Shawn developed an intense interest in birds and in conservation efforts to protect critical bird habitats. He has always been an advocate of conservation and this interest has culminated with his involvement in the NGC.
		Kam Langham Secretary Kam graduated from high school in Guatemala, and she spent part of her college senior year in Costa Rica on a National Science Foundation fellowship. Kam worked for two higher education non-profit organizations where she learned to write proposals and to administer contracts. Her involvement with the NGC combines her interests of helping students and preserving habitat. Kam is currently an administrative analyst for the State of California.
		Bryon A. Daley Research Equipment Chairperson Bryon received a Bachelor of Science, with a Marine Biology concentration, from Oregon State University in 1991. To gain research experience and prepare for graduate school, he worked three years as the head research technician on a project linking near-shore oceanographic processes to the structure and dynamics of rocky intertidal communities. Bryon is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. He has traveled extensively throughout Central America both as a student and a tourist, and for the past five years, has been conducting his dissertation research in an Andean piedmont stream in Estado Portuguesa, Venezuela. Bryon's current research examines and compares the effects of insect and fish consumers on stream community structure, and how these processes vary across habitats.
		Peter B. McIntyre Student Grant Chairperson Pete received his B.S. from Harvard in 1998, and has been studying aquatic ecology and conservation in the tropics ever since. After working and traveling in Uganda and Madagascar for a year, he began graduate school at Cornell. He is nearly finished with his Ph.D. work, which has examined the contributions of fish species to the functioning of tropical freshwater ecosystems. He has worked intensively at two field sites: Rio Las Marias, a small river in the Venezuelan piedmont, and Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. He hopes to continue working in both regions in the future. In addition to ecological research, Pete is committed to tropical conservation and education. He has worked with NGC since 2004, and is delighted to have the opportunity to help support student research in the Neotropics. He has also been part of the teaching staff of the Nyanza Project, a field course on Lake Tanganyika that trains American and African students in science and conservation of tropical lakes. He also hopes to begin writing popular science articles about freshwater conservation issues, including those in Neotropical grasslands.
		Jeri M. Langham, Ph.D. Field Station Chairperson Born and raised in Venezuela, Jeri speaks fluent Spanish and has returned for 2-4 weeks every year since 1984. His involvement in the NGC complements his passion for teaching and commitment to conservation. Jeri earned his Doctorate in Plant Ecology from Washington State University and has been a Professor of Biological Sciences at California State University in Sacramento since 1970. He was recognized with the Outstanding Teacher Award in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics for the 1996-97 academic year. Initiated four years earlier, this award can only be won once by a faculty member. In June 2003, Jeri started the five year Faculty Early Retirement Program offered by CSUS. His commitment to conservation is reflected by membership and donations to more than 50 national and international professional societies and environmental organizations.
Jeri is an elected member of Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars, the National Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, and The Society of the Sigma Xi, an organization devoted to promotion of research in science. His travels have taken him around the world, but have concentrated throughout North America, Costa Rica, Panama, and Venezuela and included Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Peru, Australia and Kenya. Known for enthusiasm and boundless energy, Jeri thoroughly enjoys searching for birds and sharing them with others while leading 4-6 trips per year for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT) during his CSUS vacations.
		Linda V. Moorhouse Grant Development Chairperson After serving as President and CEO of the Canton (OH) Symphony Orchestra for 29 years, Linda relocated to Naples, FL, in 2005 and is currently operating a web design business. She is a volunteer for Literacy Collier County and the Southwest Florida Conservancy and is a member of the Board of the Friends of Art of the Naples Museum of Art. Linda has served as a board member of the American Symphony Orchestra League, President of the Metropolitan Orchestra Managers Association, President of the Organization of Ohio Orchestras and is a charter member of the Stark County (OH) Women's Hall of Fame. Linda received the Soroptimist International Woman of Distinction Award and has been active with the Arthritis Foundation of Stark County, Leadership Stark County, United Way of Central Stark County, and is a former President and Chairman of the Board of the Canton Palace Theatre Association.
She served as a member of the Site Committee of the National First Ladies Library and also served as docent for that organization. A native of Lancaster, Pa., she earned her B.A. from Penn State University. She was associated with Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York before entering the field of orchestra management.
		Jeff DaCosta Research Equipment Coordinator Jeff is currently finishing his M.S. in biology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His current research focus is the systematics and biogeography of the Neotropical avian genus Trogon, and has involved fieldwork in Central America. Jeff received a B.S. in biology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he first became interested in evolution, ecology, and birds. This was followed by experiences as a field assistant in numerous avian studies and a research technician in a biotechnology company. Jeff has studied birds in the United States, Scotland, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela. During work in the Neotropics Jeff witnessed the need for habitat conservation and improved resources for Latin American researchers. His work in the Research Equipment Program helps the NGC provide the basic tools needed to conduct important research that can be applied in habitat conservation and management.
		Valentina Ferretti Memorial Grant Chairperson Although at present Valentina is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, she conducted her B.S. in Biology in her home country at the University of Buenos Aires. In Argentina, Valentina has been involved in several projects that address the importance of human changes in the environment on the breeding behavior of birds. It is this interest on the behavior and conservation of birds what pushed her into becoming part of an Argentinean survey to assess the impact of agricultural landscapes on the status and distribution of the Pampas Meadowlark, an endangered Neotropical grassland species. She has also done extensive field research on the evolution of avian life history traits in the forests of Ecuador, Venezuela, Arizona and northern Argentina, looking at how differences in survival, predation and food availability affect species fecundity.
For her dissertation, Valentina is trying to understand the environmental variables that play a major role in determining species differences in mating systems in swallows. Her field work entails sampling birds in New York state, Belize, and Argentina for species level comparisons.
		Paulo Llambias Program Awareness Co-Chairperson Paulo has been interested in the behavioral ecology of Neotropical birds since he was an undergraduate student at the University of Buenos Aires. Working as a field biologist for Professor Thomas E. Martin (University of Montana); in Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina and the USA; he became aware of the large latitudinal variation in behavioral and life history traits in birds. This awareness guided him into his actual research interest: what are the causes of latitudinal variation in mating systems of Neotropical birds. His interest in birds ranges from the basic science behind the evolutionary patterns to more applied questions. Paulo is deeply concerned in how land use has been reducing the natural grasslands in the last ten years. In 1999, he joined a team of Argentinean researchers in a conservation project with the purpose of understanding the effects of habitat transformation over the distribution of an endangered species, the Pampas’ Meadowlark.
In addition, during 1997-98, he participated as a board member of the Asociación Ornitológica del Plata, an Argentinean NGO deeply involved in preserving the birds and their environment. He has also been a reviewer for Neotropical bird journals (El Hornero and Ornitología Neotropical). Paulo is now a graduate student at Cornell University, USA.
		Mary Anne Smith Board Member Mary Anne grew up in the oil camps of Venezuela. Her love for unspoiled nature and wildlife began there, where a normal day included flocks of parrots and macaws overhead, the sounds of howler monkeys, and frequent excursions into the rain forest. She travels whenever possible, to over 140 countries so far, favoring trips that concentrate on wildlife, birds, and nature. She is passionate about conservation, having seen first-hand the increasingly dramatic loss of habitat and the tragic resulting reduction in bird and wildlife populations world-wide. She lives on the edge of the Sam Houston National Forest close to Huntsville, Texas, where she still enjoys daily contact with birds and wildlife. Mary Anne has an undergraduate degree in Criminology and Corrections, but changed career paths after two years as a correctional officer in the Texas prison system.
She earned a Master's of Science in Accountancy from the University of Houston in 1980 and became a Certified Public Accountant in 1981. She has been the controller of two local independent banks. She has been self-employed since 1988, specializing in estate and trust work for one bank's trust department, where she also handles retirement plans for small businesses. She does some individual tax work and accounting for a select few clients in between her travels.