Meredith Whitney

As a zookeeper frustrated with trying to keep the last representatives of a species alive in captivity Meredith realized it was time to instead work towards preventing such dire circumstances from arising in the first place. As such, she’s committed to using her skills in caring for individual animals to prevent population declines and extinctions in the wild. Meredith worked for 7 years in an AZA accredited zoo as a keeper and later as a collection and conservation manager before leaving the US to serve as the Chief of Environmental Quality for a US Air Force base in Japan, where she worked on efforts to contain the effects of the Fukushima nuclear crisis in 2011. She later moved to Haiti where she rescued street dogs while working for the US Embassy. She now lives in Washington DC where she volunteers at a local urban wildlife rescue center. Her international experience, wildlife skills, and education give her a unique perspective on wildlife rescue and the sure knowledge that we can’t save the species without first saving the individual.

With IFAW, Meredith has led projects on rescuing big cats in captivity in the US and rehabilitation of leopards in Kenya. She has advised on rehabilitation projects for psittacines, primates, and a variety of other taxa, and has responded with our disaster response teams to provide care for wildlife and domestic animals impacted by disasters.  

Meredith earned a BA in Evolutionary Paleobiology from Mount Holyoke College and an MS in Applied Ecology (concentration in conservation) from Indiana University.