We are pleased to announce that Barbara L. Dugelby, Ph.D., has joined the OTS team as our coordinator for the NAPIRE (Native American and Pacific Islander Research Experience) program. The NAPRIE program is entering its 10th year and is funded by the NSF LSAMP (Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation) program.

Barbara Dugelby is a conservation and human ecologist. She joins OTS with an MS in natural resource economics and policy and a PhD in tropical and human ecology from Duke University. She has more than twenty-five years of experience working in the US and internationally on multi-stakeholder, science-based conservation planning initiatives, with a special focus on collaborative planning and management involving local communities. Much of her work has focused on assisting indigenous and traditional communities to understand, assess, and protect biological diversity and wild, intact natural areas. She has a special affinity for Central America, having lived in Guatemala for more than three years and worked with indigenous communities throughout the region.

Upon finishing her PhD in 1995, Dr. Dugelby served as The Nature Conservancy's first Human Ecologist, directing the Local People's Program and managing the Conservancy's work with local and indigenous communities in sixty protected area sites throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. She also worked for The Wildlands Project as their Wildlands Ecologist. For the last decade, she has been with Round River Conservation Studies, an international non-profit organization based in Utah, serving as the Latin America Director. During the last five years, Dr. Dugelby has interacted with numerous Native American tribes in the US Southwest on documenting, mapping, and planning for the protection of cultural and natural resources across ancestral lands. Her most recent work focuses on assisting tribes with climate change vulnerability assessments and adaptation planning.

Dr. Dugelby is fluent in Spanish and proficient in German. She currently lives in central Texas with her husband and two children.

Dr. Dugelby is currently recruiting students for the 2014 NAPIRE summer program. Click here to email Dr. Dugelby for further information. 

Early application deadline: November 10, 2013.

Final application deadline: February 10, 2014 followed by Open Enrollment/rolling admission until course is full. 
Duration: 5 weeks, June 11 - July 13, 2014. Arrive June 10, depart July 14, 2014. 

Photo by J. Staf

Coordinator: Eileen Hebets (Lab website)
Course duration: 2 weeks (January 3-17, 2014)
Application Deadline:October 1, 2013 for priority consideration, followed by rolling admission until fully enrolled. 

Photo by JC Ulate

Course duration: 2 weeks (May 24 to June 8, 2014)
Application Deadline: February 3, 2014 for priority consideration, followed by rolling admission until fully enrolled.

Coordinator: Erin Sills (North Carolina State University) 
Course duration: 2 weeks (June 15-30, 2014)
Credits: 2 semester credits awarded by the University of Costa Rica
Application Deadline: February 3, 2014 for priority consideration, followed by rolling admission until fully enrolled.

NEW 

Monitoring Terrestrial Vertebrates Using Camera Traps: Field and Analytical Techniques

The course will provide an overview of camera trapping, a practical and consistent technique to monitor ground-dwelling terrestrial vertebrates. This course will enhance students' ability to apply a systematic camera trapping survey in the field including spatial design, field camera trap deployment, and modern analytical techniques for camera trap data.

Coordinator: Manuel Spinola (ICOMVIS) , Jorge Ahumada and Johanna Hurtado (Project TEAM) 

Course duration: 2 weeks (July 21-31, 2014)

Application deadline: February 3, 2014 for priority consideration, followed by rolling admission until fully enrolled.