PROGRAM

Debra Erickson
San Diego Zoo Global

Debra Erickson serves as Marketing Director: Communications and Interpretation for San Diego Zoo Global and Executive Director of Atlantis Blue Project Foundation. She has been in the conservation, interpretation, marketing, communications, and education fields for 30 years and has worked for the San Diego Zoo, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, Atlantis, Paradise Island, SeaWorld San Diego, SeaWorld Orlando, S.E.A. Aquarium, and Dolphin Island.

Debra has held a wide variety of positions in the education and interpretation field including Education Director at San Diego Zoo Safari Park, SeaWorld of Orlando, and Atlantis, Paradise Island. She has created interpretive plans for a wide variety of exhibits including Manatees: The Last Generation, Wild Arctic, and Tiger Trail which have all won the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums Top Exhibit Honors award. Currently she is leading the effort to provide San Diego Zoo Kids, a 24-hour, commercial-free television channel, to 400 children’s hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses in the U.S.

Having worked in over 25 countries during her career and seeing the challenges that many developing countries face, Debra has a keen commitment to conservation. She worked as Executive Director and Conservation Director for Orangutan Foundation International and was responsible for developing and implementing the conservation plan for Tanjung Puting National Park. Debra continues her conservation work through the Atlantis Blue Project Foundation where she funds marine conservation projects and mentors conservationists in the field.

Debra received her B.A. in Biology from Scripps College and her M.A. in Educational Technology from San Diego State University.

Hiroyuki Takahashi
President of Japanese Zoo and Aquarium Educators (JZAE)

Hiroyuki "Hiro" TAKAHASHI is a president of Japanese Zoo and Aquarium Educators (JZAE) since 2013 and a primate keeper since April2019. He is also in charge of the Regional Representative of International Zoo Educators Association (IZE) since 2016. He has experienced as a lion keeper, an ungulate keeper, and a children's zoo keeper before. After completing a bachelor degree in zoology, he has been as an animal registrar at Chiba Zoo, while also completing a M.Ed. in zoo environmental education in 1999. His major interest lies in the conservation education at the zoo for the public.

Oi Soo Chin
Impacts & Evaluation Director of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil

Soo Chin first joined RSPO in 2013 as the Biodiversity and Conservation Manager under the Technical Division and moved to the Impacts and Evaluation Division in 2016.

In this capacity, she will be leading the team to understand the impacts of RSPO certification, communicate these impacts to stakeholders and incorporate lessons learned to continuously improve the standard.

The Impacts and Evaluation Division is responsible for the Theory of Change, Monitoring and Evaluation System, Complaints and Appeal Procedures, RSPO key research priorities, SENSOR, ISEAL compliance and GeoRSPO.

Soo Chin was trained in Forestry and prior to joining RSPO, she was a Project Coordinator for the Malaysian Environmental Consultants (MEC), where she was attached to for 10 years working on numerous projects and possesses vast experience in HCV assessment, sustainable palm oil auditing, due diligence, natural resource conservation and management in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Augusto Medina
Senior Vice-President for Training and Education
Environmental Education and Conservation Global
Email: medinaaugusto096@gmail.com

Dr. Medina is on the board of Environmental Education and Conservation Global and serves as its Senior Vice-President for Training and Education.

Dr. Medina has worked in environmental and outdoor education for 45 years. For 12 years Dr. Medina served as a Program Officer for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US & Canada). In that capacity he worked with government agencies and nongovernmental organizations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean to design conservation initiatives, environmental education programs, public awareness campaigns, deliver environmental education professional development workshops, and develop educational resources. In collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the North American Association for Environmental Education, and Environmental Education and Conservation Global, he has presented sessions and facilitated workshops on environmental education, natural and cultural interpretation, and social marketing in Thailand, India, China and Taiwan. For 18-years Dr. Medina was Project Manager of the Environmental Education and Training Partnership; a consortium of environmental education organizations and government agencies that supported the professional development of environmental educators in the USA. Dr. Medina earned a PhD in Natural Resources Management with a specialization in Environmental Education at the University of Michigan in 1983.

Ms. Nuchjaree Purchkoon
Chief of Conservation Division
Bureau of Conservation and Research
ZPO

Ms. Nuchjaree graduated in the field of Wildlife Conservation, Bachelor degree of Forestry from Kasetsart University and graduated in the field of Environment technology, Master degree of Environment and Natural resource from Mahidol University. She started to work in the Zoological Park Organization (ZPO) since 2005 and has experience working with the Eastern Sarus Crane (ESC) Reintroduction Program by ZPO more than 10 years. ESC is the wildlife reserved species and was extinct from the wild of Thailand in 40 years ago. The reintroduction program was operating in 2009 to present. In 2015, ZPO received the fund from Global Environment Facility (GEF) to work in the Conserving Habitats for Globally Important Flora and Fauna in Production Landscapes Project. The project focused on working in outside of protected areas especially; in paddy fields are habitats of Eastern Sarus Crane. The project achievements are to enhance the status of ESC from extinct in wild to be critically endangering species and habitats of ESC are changing to be environmental friendly rice production. Moreover, Thailand Ramsar Natural COP 13 was report that valuation of ecosystem service benefits from increased tourism revenues as a result of increased community base tourism to view Eastern Sarus Crane and other birds in wetlands. These successful came from the cooperation of local farmers and communities, partner agencies and private sector.