THE PEOPLE OF CERI
Frank Lance Craighead, PhD. Wildlife Ecologist,  CERI Executive Director. Lance is an adjunct assistant professor of Biology at Montana State University, and a board member (vice president) of the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative. He works full time as Executive Director but teaches occasional classes at MSU and at other venues such as Round River Conservation Studies field courses. Comments, suggestions, or questions about CERI should be directed to him at this email address.  Lance is a conservation biologist and grizzly bear geneticist. He received his PhD degree from MSU in 1994. He is actively involved in most of the CERI projects including those in Canada for which we act as fiscal sponsors; his primary focus is on field work and GIS work for our Conservation Area Design and Conservation GIS projects. Lance is also responsible for maintaining funding and other resources for the GIS lab and directing GIS-based publications and media materials. Lance is a member of the IUCN World Committee on Protected Areas, the International Bear Association, the Society for Conservation Biology, the Society for Conservation GIS, the Wildlife Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Charles S. Craighead Wildlife Biologist,  CERI Media Director. Charlie is a wildlife biologist with a BSc. from Utah State University. He is a writer and photographer living in Moose, Wyoming. He has published two books in collaboration with photographer Thomas Mangelsen, written narration for several natural history television programs, and is currently finishing a book on the Grand Canyon and one on Wyoming's wildlife. He is also co-producer and director of photography for the Mardy Murie Film Project, and is currentlly writing a book about Mardy Murie to complement the film. He can be reached via email at this address.
April Hudoff Craighead, MSc. Wildlife Biologist,  CERI financial officer April received her Master’s degree in biology from Montana State University in 2000.  Her primary focus is avian ecology, particularly raptor ecology.  She is also interested in paleoecology and part of her Master’s research was focused on relating paleontological data from cave deposits (pack-rat middens of raptor pellets) to habitat and climate change. She is working on the Bozeman Pass/I-90 project and is collaborating with Wayne McCrory on a review and analysis of bear poaching in North America. She can be reached via email at this address.
Tom Olenicki,   all-but-done PhD.   Wildlife Ecologist, CERI GIS Program Manager Tom is a wildlife biologist with an MSc. from Montana State University. He is currently interested in GIS and GPS applications to ecological studies. Tom graduated from Montana State University in 1992 with an MSc. in Wildlife Management. Tom is the secondary alternate GIS analyst and GPS/remote sensing specialist. He will assist with GIS analysis as needed and his primary responsibilities will include the incorporation of GPS data from our dispersal studies into GIS. Tom is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Montana in Biological Sciences. His research focuses on the use of remote sensing to determine habitat use of bison at several spatial scales, particularly fine scales such as 1m.
Michael Gilpin, PhD.    Theoretical Ecologist and Conservation Biologist     CERI science advisory board Mike is professor of biology at the University of California-San Diego.  His early work involved physics and population biology; his Master’s degree was in physics and his Doctorate was in Biology.  He has co-authored several articles and book chapters that are keystone works in conservation biology and pioneered the concept of Population Viability Analysis.  He is a Research Associate of CERI involved in modeling dispersal movements and metapopulation concepts in reserve design.  As Mike approaches academic retirement in 2001 he plans to spend more time working with CERI, particularly in the implementation of the web-based College for Conservation Biology centered in Bozeman, Montana.
Steve Primm, MA   Conservation Planner and Field Researcher     CERI science advisory board Steve has a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the University of Colorado-Boulder, where he completed an interdisciplinary thesis on grizzly bear conservation.  He is currently a Research Associate with the Northern Rockies Conservation Coop (NRCC) and CERI.  Steve’s current interests are detection and distribution surveys for large carnivores, effective implementation of conservation practices, and the potential effects of global warming on GYE bear populations.
Vickie Backus, PhD. Candidate       CERI science advisory board Vickie is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Utah.  She is a CERI Research Associate developing individual-based models of animal movement using object-oriented programming language (Java) as the basis of her PhD research.  Vickie’s mathematical expertise will be complemented by biological assistance from Lance Craighead, Troy Merrill, and David Mattson, and by programming assistance from Michael Gilpin.
Wayne McCrory    Bear Biologist     CERI science advisory board   Wayne is an independent biologist with the Valhalla Wilderness Society.  He received his Honors Degree in zoology from the University of British Columbia and has studied bears in British Columbia for over 25 years.  He is a leading advocate for bear and bear habitat conservation in Canada.  Wayne also has extensive experience in conservation biology analyses, large mammal inventories, ecosystem-based habitat mapping, bear hazard studies and grizzly bear-human management planning.  He co-authored a report with Steven Herrero and Erica Mallum on preservation and management of grizzly bears in the British Columbia Provincial Park system and was a member of the B.C. Ministry of Environment Grizzly Bear Science Advisory Committee.  In addition to his scientific work Wayne has developed advocacy campaigns to preserve the Khutzymateen Grizzly Sanctuary, the Spirit Bear Conservancy, and the Goat Range (White Grizzly) Provincial Park.  CERI assists and supports Wayne in research efforts in Kakwa Provincial Park and the Interior Cedar Rainforest as well as the mid-coast of British Columbia.   CERI also contributes to his conservation and educational efforts.
Brian L. Horejsi, PhD. Wildlife Ecologist        CERI science advisory board Brian received his Doctorate at the University of Calgary (1976) where he studied the mother - young behavior of bighorn sheep subject to a high level of human interaction. He previously had received a Bachelor of science degree in Forestry from Montana State University (1965). He has worked for the Alberta Forest Service, the Yukon Wildlife Branch, as a research associate at the University of Calgary, and as a consultant to the oil and gas and mining industries. Most recently he has worked for a variety of non governmental organizations.  He founded and operates the Speak Up For Wildlife Foundation in Calgary, Alberta. His professional and activist efforts include the impacts of habitat fragmentation, roads and industrial development, agriculture and public regulatory process on wildlife populations. He has engaged in field work with moose, caribou, wild sheep, and black bears. Much of his past and current work has focused on grizzly bear populations. CERI collaborates with Brian on grizzly bear conservation efforts in coastal British Columbia, Montana, and in the international trans-boundary regions of Idaho, Montana, Alberta and British Columbia.
Kim Heinemeyer, PhD   Wildlife Ecologist       CERI science advisory board Kim completed a PhD in Conservation Biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz where she studied with Dr. Michael Soule.  She has directed a grizzly bear study and a Conservation Area Design on the Taku River, and a Conservation Area Design for the Muskwa-Kechika Management area in British Columbia with Round River Conservation Studies and assistance from CERI.  Kim has extensive field experience with forest carnivores; particularly marten and wolverine and employs genetic techniques and GIS analysis in her research.
The CERI GIS Lab
The CERI Geographic Information System (GIS)  Lab and Office. CERI currently occupies modest offices in the old Gallatin Valley Seed Company building at 201 South Wallace Ave.  One office houses our GIS lab and another is used for administration and GIS-related work We have received four Conservation Technology Support Program grants from ESRI to develop our GIS facilities. These included two Hewlett-Packard workstations running ArcInfo and ArcView, and a Hewlett-Packard 450-C plotter. We have purchase additional equipment with grants from a number of foundations.  We currently have six Windows workstations and a second plotter (750-C). Two workstations have dual 2 GHZ processors for GIS and remote sensing applications.  One workstation has a 2.5 GHz processor. We use ArcGIS 9.x and ArcView for most of our GIS applications. We also have an off-site Linux server located in the Ecology Department at Montana State University which houses the Y2Y data library.  The data library can be accessed at y2ydata.msu.montana.edu.  Other conservation groups and Montana State University students in Bozeman share the use of these facilities.
Board of Directors and Strategy Team