Our staff has grown on both sides of the globe in recent weeks, so we wanted to take the opportunity to introduce our latest hires and welcome them to FISHBIO!

Chico, CA: 

Gabriel Kopp comes to FISHBIO with 12 years of consulting experience, with a focus on fisheries and regulatory practices. He has led numerous aquatic investigations on proposed and existing hydropower facilities, including entrainment assessments, population surveys, aquatic macroinvertebrate studies, and work in lake environments. His wide array of fisheries experience includes habitat assessments; outmigrant monitoring; radio, acoustic, and PIT telemetry; and mark-recapture methodologies. Gabe has a strong regulatory background in permitting issues related to fisheries and hydropower maintenance and operations, including numerous Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) relicensings from the mid-Columbia River, Washington, to the Yuba River, California. He also has advanced training and experience in Geographic Information Systems, including habitat mapping, watershed delineation, modeling habitat capacities, fly-through video simulations, and defining species ranges. We're looking forward to taking advantage of his many skills! 

Portland, OR:

Jeffrey Baumgartner has 25 years of experience working in conservation management and evaluation, including over 15 years focused on the conservation of freshwater ecosystems. In his previous role as Executive Vice President at Wild Salmon Center, Jeff was responsible for all organizational operations, including conservation programs, development, communications, finance, and administrative functions. He oversaw programs for salmon across the Pacific Rim, with a focus on habitat, sustainable fishing practices of wild fish, and local advocacy for wild fish. In his work with The Nature Conservancy, Jeff was a founding member of the Conservancy's Freshwater Initiative, and helped develop and publish an innovative approach for setting flow-based river ecosystem management targets. Jeff holds a doctorate in evolutionary genetics from Stony Brook University, and performed post-doctoral research in fish behavior at the University of California, Berkeley. His focus will be helping to optimize FISHBIO's conservation efforts, as well as fund raising for our international work.

Vientiane, Lao PDR:

Samuel Leslie is joining FISHBIO's Lao PDR office after completing a Princeton in Asia Fellowship, where he worked at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Lao PDR as an Environmental Governance Officer in Vientiane. As part of his work with IUCN, Sam worked closely with FISHBIO staff member Sinsamout Ounboundisane on a project to establish fish conservation zones for endangered fishes in villages in northern Lao PDR. Sam's experience includes field technician work on projects in South Africa and Canada's Northwest Territories, three seasons leading natural-history-based wilderness orientations for college students in Arizona, and coordinating an environmental education summer program in inner-city Washington, D.C. Sam will be helping to coordinate FISHBIO's Mekong activities and assist with administration of our Lao office.

Sithideth Pathoumthong is working on the Mekong Fish Network Standard Sampling Program Pilot Study through an internship supported by the Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund. Sithideth studied biology at the National University of Laos, and worked for four years with the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan, where he studied the distribution and status of long-tailed and rhesus macaques in Lao PDR. He will be conducting weekly field visits to two villages near Vientiane to assist fishers with data collection.

Kethip Nammanivong joins FISHBIO on an internship to complete the data checking and quality assurance of household food consumption surveys from FISHBIO's Nam Kading Aquatic Resources and Sustainable Livelihoods project. Kethip is a recent graduate from the National University of Laos, where she studied biology, and she will be working part time at the FISHBIO Lao office.

A warm welcome to everyone! We're excited to have you as part of the FISHBIO team.