Ten members named TWS Fellows for 2020

Ten longtime TWS members have been named TWS Fellows for 2020. The TWS Fellows Award is given out each year to individuals who have “distinguished themselves through exceptional service” to the profession and have been members of the society for at least 10 years.

“Fellows are to be ambassadors for TWS, and the 10 new fellows have already demonstrated what great ambassadors they are,” said TWS President Gary White. “Each has been making contributions to TWS in numerous ways, but serving as examples to be followed is their strongest testament.”

Find out more about the background of these esteemed wildlifers below.

Erin McCance

Erin McCance is a sessional instructor at the University of Manitoba and a wildlife ecologist at EcoLogic Environmental Inc. She now serves as the executive coordinator of the Canadian Section of The Wildlife Society after her term as president of the section. She is chair of the TWS International Network and Engagements Committee, serves on the Leadership Institute Selection Committee and is a longtime member of the Manitoba Chapter. As a University of Manitoba instructor, she has guided the university’s student chapter of TWS.

Gary Roloff

Gary Roloff is a professor at Michigan State University and co-director of the Center for Cooperative Ecological Resilience. Roloff also currently serves as president of the North Central Section. After working  in wildlife management for Boise Cascade for over a decade, he brings that perspective to his current positions. He has spent 15 years at Michigan State, where his interests focus on wildlife responses to disturbances, the effects of forest management on wildlife and methods for mitigating negative human-wildlife interactions.

Tim Van Deelen

Tim Van Deelen is a professor in the department of forestry and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he serves as faculty advisor to the student chapter. He has served on a variety of committees and is a longtime reviewer for the Journal of Wildlife Management and Wildlife Society Bulletin.

Harriet Allen

Harriet Allen retired from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife after 25 years with the agency. She has held TWS offices at the chapter, section and international levels including serving as president of the Washington Chapter, vice president of the Northwest Section and Northwest Section representative to council. As manager for Washington’s endangered and threatened species program, she identified candidate species and developed and implemented recovery plans for 14 species, including bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and lynx (Felix lynx). She  also helped implement the first reintroduction of fishers (Martes pennant).

Kerry Nicholson

Kerry Nicholson is a furbearer and carnivore biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. As a longtime TWS member, she has been active at the student, state and international levels. A graduate of the Leadership Institute, she has continued to be engaged with the program. At the state chapter level, she has served as Alaska’s northern representative, where she has been active organizing conferences, sessions and workshops. She helps plan the TWS Women in Wildlife symposiums and networking events and is co-editing a book on women in wildlife, stressing the importance of fostering diversity in wildlife conservation and management.

Kelly Douglass

Kelly Douglass is a wildlife disease biologist at USDA Wildlife Services-North Carolina, where she is responsible for statewide wildlife disease surveillance and monitoring. She is president-elect of the Southeastern Section and previously served as president of the North Carolina Chapter. She received the Chapter Award in 2016 for her individual effort and contributions to wildlife conservation through TWS and the Wildlife Hero Award in 2019 her role as a mentor.

Leslie Burger

Leslie Burger is an assistant extension professor at Mississippi State University. As the undergraduate coordinator or the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, she serves as manager for the undergraduate wildlife curriculum at MSU and has worked to ensure that students graduating from WFA can meet TWS certification standards. She has been the faculty advisor to the MSU student chapter since 2014 and has served as the president of the Mississippi Chapter. Her work at MSU has included the development of an online master’s degree program in conservation education.

Fidel Hernandez

Fidel Hernandez is deputy director of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. Currently president of the Southwest Section, he was previously the Southwest Section representative to council. An author on over 70 articles or book chapters, he has largely focused on bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) ecology and human-wildlife management in the context of rangeland management. He serves as a reviewer for several journals, including the Journal of Wildlife Maangement, and has been a panel review member for the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the International Aridlands Consortium and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Randy DeYoung

Randy DeYoung is a professor and research scientist at the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute. He has been active in The Wildlife Society for nearly 20 years, including serving as an associate editor, guest editor and acting editor-in-chief of the Journal of Wildlife Management. He also serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Wildlife Management and the Wildlife Society Bulletin. A former Texas Chapter president, he was an invited speaker at the first two National Conferences on Wildlife Management and Conservation in Mexico.

Cynthia Perrine

Cynthia Perrine serves as program director for the Western Section of The Wildlife Society as an independent contractor. She has served as president and California Central Coast Chapter Representative to the section, and has been active in student engagement, serving as professional liaison between the Cal Poly Student Chapter and the Wildlife Society. As program director, she created a K-12 outreach pilot program on wildlife science, wildlife stewardship and STEM education. She is active in Women of Wildlife, has given presentations at WOW events at the TWS Annual Conference and has received several awards, including the Distinguished Service Award for her service to the Western Section and TWS, the James D. Yoakum Award for Outstanding Service and Commitment and the California Department of Fish and Game Director’s Outstanding Service Recognition.

Click here for a complete list of 2020 TWS award winners.