Profile

Liz Goehring is an ecologist, educator, and program developer with experience working in corporate, academic, and public education settings. She began her career as a systems analyst with IBM before following her passion for the natural world and retooling in ecology and science education. Her research focused on monarch reproduction and understanding environmental factors involved in reproductive diapause and postdiapause development. She also helped develop the Monarchs in the Classroom curricula and related teacher trainings. For several years, she worked with research scientists as an outreach specialist, developing programs and curricula that featured active research (e.g., deep-sea ecosystems) and citizen science (e.g., GLOBE, Project Budburst, Journey North), using the excitement of scientific discovery to spark the individual’s imagination and inquiry process.

She currently lives in Colorado where she trains community science volunteers to help understand the monarch’s use of the region and engages the public in efforts to help conserve monarchs, pollinators, and their habitat. She also serves on the board of directors for the Monarch Joint Venture.

Don Davis has participated in numerous monarch-related conservation, educational, and scientific projects and initiatives, starting in1967 when he tagged monarchs with Dr. Fred Urquhart’s Insect Migration Association. Don has had a lifelong interest in natural history, while his career was focused for 40 years on child welfare and protection in Ontario.

Don has contributed to Journey North, Monarch Teacher Network Canada, and Monarch Watch since their inception, and submitted data to Project Monarch Health. He is a Life Member of Ontario Nature and Friends of Presqu’ile Park.

Travels related to monarch conservation and education have taken Don across North America. Don attended the 1997 North American Conference on the Monarch Butterfly in Morelia, Mexico, and subsequently joined delegates at workshops and meetings in held in Canada, U.S.A. and Mexico, culminating in the North American Monarch Conservation Plan (2008).

Don served on the committee developing the Canadian Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan (2016),and is currently a member of the Monarch Recovery National Technical Committee. Don has advocated for monarchs at Council meetings of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (Toronto, ON; Banff, AB; Yellowknife, NWT), and meetings of the Trilateral Committee for Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation and Management (Quebec City, QC; San Diego, CA).

Don served with Board of Directors of Michoacán Reforestation Fund prior to the creation of Monarch Butterfly Fund in 2009. Don remains dedicated to achieving MBF’s Mission and Vision for monarchs in North America, noting that this is a very time-sensitive and crucial time for achieving success related to monarch conservation and protection. Don is retired and lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Gail Morris is the Coordinator of the Southwest Monarch Study, a Citizen Science research project, based in Arizona and the Vice President of the Central Arizona Butterfly Association. She has been active in monarch conservation and training Citizen Scientists around the Southwest United States since 2006.

Isabel Ramírez is a Senior Researcher at the Center for Research in Environmental Geography (CIGA) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has a bachelor’s degree in Geography from the University of Guadalajara and a PhD in Geography from the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). She completed her training at the Colegio de México (COLMEX) as part of the International LEAD Program (Leadership for Environment and Development).

Throughout her academic training and professional experience, she has worked on various issues that converge or start from land use (Land System Science). She has published papers on landscape ecology, vegetation dynamics and land use, conservation and community management of forests, forest governance and policy, and environmental history. Most of her research work, student training, and collaboration with national and international colleagues focus on environmental conservation and rural development of the monarch butterfly region in Mexico.

She has received several awards, among which the National University Distinction for Young Academics (UNAM 2009), and  the Pollinator Advocate Award for Mexico (NAPPC 2011) stand out. She is a member of the board of directors of the Monarch Butterfly Fund since 2009.