CNCC Chapter Leadership
Our chapter needs you! We are always looking for volunteer board and committee members - please email us at [email protected] to find out how you can get more involved in our chapter!
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Past President: Janelle Chojnacki
Janelle has worked on CA State Parks’ wildlife team, and has 8+ years experience in field work in Costa Rica, Saipan, Mexico, Alabama, the Channel Islands, and Point Reyes, banding, tracking, and observing songbirds, with some small mammal and environmental work as well (reach out for advice on getting these jobs!) Janelle has a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Studies (Environmental Justice) from UC Berkeley and a Master's in Natural Resources Management - Wildlife from Cal Poly Humboldt. In her spare time, she loves birding, hiking, whitewater kayaking, am getting into wildlife tracking, and playing soccer. |
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President: Samantha Chavez
GIS Analyst Stillwater Sciences Samantha Chavez is a GIS Analyst for local environmental consulting firm Stillwater Sciences. She joins the board after spending several years as a wildlife technician studying bats, California Spotted Owl, Delta smelt, and Common Murre. While learning to band passerine songbirds at Point Blue's Palomarin field station, she decided to pursue her Master's in Natural Resources - Wildlife at Cal Poly Humboldt. At Cal Poly, she developed an interest in GIS and spatial ecology while studying how Barn owls interact with an agricultural landscape. As President, she hopes to boost collaboration with the wildlife professionals community, encourage more members to join the board, and develop workshops and events geared towards mentoring wildlife undergraduates at Cal Poly Humboldt. |
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President Elect: Verenice Sanchez
Friends of the Dunes BIO COMING SOON |
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Secretary: Frank Fogarty
Professor Cal Poly Humboldt Frank Fogarty is an avian ecologist and Professor in the Wildlife Department at Humboldt State University. He is interested in songbird communities and their responses to potential disturbances including fire, climate change, cattle grazing, and habitat loss. He has primarily worked with bird communities in the mountains of the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada. He received his B.S. from University of Florida, and his M.S. and M.P.P. from University of Maryland, College Park. His doctoral thesis at University of California, Davis focused on the use of point count data to understand bird communities in the Great Basin, including their relation with fragmentation and loss of riparian habitat. Frank is committed to fostering an inclusive community for local wildlife professionals. He looks forward to using his position to help grow this community by providing opportunities for recent graduates and BIPOC biologists. |
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Treasurer: Jenna Hatfield
Environmental Scientist California Department of Parks and Recreation Jenna is an ecologist, whose career has spanned a diverse range of systems and species, from studying white-tailed hawks in south Texas and fishers in northern California, to analyzing community wildfire resilience in the Sierra Nevada. Most recently, her work focused on studying ecosystem resilience to anthropogenic disturbance across California’s public lands. She has a passion for landscape-scale conservation and intersectionality within environmental science and is excited to channel this background into supporting CNCC. Outside of work, she loves building community, birds, riding her bike, and traveling abroad or really, doing just about anything under the sun (or clouds). |
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Section Representative: Elizabeth Meisman
Wildlife Biologist Lizzi is a Wildlife Biologist working on a wide variety of environmental consulting projects. Areas of focus include birds, amphibians, and terrestrial mammals. Lizzi's wildlife biology experience draws on her time working with wildlife species at research institutions, bird observatories, and on private timberlands. She completed a B.S. in Wildlife Conservation Biology, with a minor in German Studies, from Humboldt State University in 2016. She has done research on habitat use of mesocarnivores, impacts of anthropogenic landscape change on osprey nesting success and nest site selection, and blood parasites in osprey nestlings. She is extremely active in her local community, and contributes to long-term monitoring in the area through volunteering at the Humboldt Bay Bird Observatory. In what little free time she has, she can be found in the woods hunting for birds with her partner and two dogs. Being a big sister is deeply ingrained in her and she strives to help students and early-career professionals whenever possible. She serves on the Western Section Professional Development, Student Affairs (as Co-Chair), Diversity, Conservation Affairs, and the Annual Meeting Planning Committees, as well as the Quiz Bowl at the intergalactic TWS level. She is also in the current TWS Leadership Institute. She is always eager to share resources and information, so feel free to reach out at any point if you would like to learn more about these committees or other opportunities within the Chapter and Western Section! |
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Conservation Committee Chair: Jen Olson
Senior Environmental Scientist California Department of Fish and Wildlife Jen is a Senior Environmental Scientist serving as the Statewide Restoration Permitting Coordinator for CDFW's Cutting the Green Tape Program. Her work focuses on implementing permitting efficiencies to increase the pace and scale of restoration in California. Prior to working for CDFW, Jen worked as a Research Associate for the Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, where she worked as a field and lab supervisor in northern Arizona and Borneo. Her background is primarily in field ornithology (nest searching, mist-netting and banding) but she has experience with a variety of terrestrial and aquatic species and generally loves learning about anything natural history related. In her free time, Jen enjoys birding, travel, running, and backpacking with her dog, Dipper. |
Student Representative: Owen Sinkus - BIO COMING SOON
