New wildlife policy intern joins TWS government affairs team

The Wildlife Society’s welcomes its fall 2021 Joe Burns Memorial Wildlife Policy Intern, Brielle Manzolillo, to TWS’ headquarters team.

Brielle will enhance TWS’ policy resources, track and influence U.S. federal policies, keep TWS members up-to-date on the latest in U.S. conservation policy, and engage in coalition meetings, legislative hearings and agency briefings.

Manzolillo attended Pace University in New York, where she received a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies. During her undergraduate program, she launched a social science research project on human perceptions of urban coyotes in the New York City area. After graduating in 2017, she continued to work for the Pace University environmental studies department as a social science research assistant. Manzolillo continued studying coyotes with her research team, resulting in a 2019 publication that implies wildlife coexistence strategies could benefit from messaging that instills in residents a sense that coyotes and other wild animals can belong in urban green spaces.

In 2021, Manzolillo earned her master’s from Colorado State University in forest sciences with an emphasis in natural resource policy. Through her thesis research, she identified effective policy and management strategies for wolf reintroduction in Colorado. While at CSU, she was a part of the Public Lands Policy Group, a research group focused on U.S public lands policy and governance, and the Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence, an interdisciplinary group focused on minimizing human-carnivore conflict. She also received a fellowship to the Center for Collaborative Conservation. Manzolillo is an active member of TWS and currently serves as the Urban Wildlife Working Group student representative.

Brielle Manzolillo in Colorado, where she received her master’s from Colorado State University in 2021. Photo credit: Brielle Manzolillo

Manzolillo is interested in the correlation between U.S federal policy and collaborative approaches to wildlife management that engage diverse groups of people. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, camping, boating and spending time with her pets, family and friends.

The Joe Burns Memorial Wildlife Policy Internship helps advance TWS’ policy priorities and provides professional experience to students and recent graduates looking to expand their network and expertise. The program is named in honor of one of TWS’ first policy interns, Joe Burns. Burns devoted his career to federal service, and spent over 20 years working on behalf of conservation programming within the U.S. Forest Service. Visit wildlife.org/policy to learn more about the program and current offerings.