Keynote Speakers
Dr. Robbie Kroger has worked in the restoration ecology game for the past 20 years. While working as a an academic first with USDA-Agricultural Research Service, then with Mississippi State University in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Agriculture, and lastly with the RESTORE council following the BP Oil spill, Robbie has been fostering ways and means to implement good science based work that benefits the environment as well as people.
In founding Blood Origins almost 5 years ago Robbie realized that hunting and the sustainable use of wildlife around the world was under pressure as the truth around the mechanisms that perpetuate wildlife were getting lost in the noise of misperceptions around hunters. Blood Origins sought to convey the truth around the true heart of a hunter, explain the communities why, and then convey the benefit and consequence of the action to the broader wildlife and sustainability community. Today Blood Origins is a 501c3 charity in the United States that every single day pushes a new message around hunting and hunters.
Craig Stephen is a veterinarian and epidemiologist who has worked at the interface of people, animals and our shared environments for 30 years. He is the president of an animal health think tank called the McEachran Institute as well as a One Health/Ecohealth practitioner with academic affiliations in public health and veterinary medicine. Most recently, he is exploring ways to build wildlife health systems that are as concerned about ensuring wildlife have all they need to stay well in addition to building capacity for society to respond to issues that threaten wildlife health. Craig has worked on global health issues across species,emerging environmental health threats, and environmental and health impacts of food production systems. He is the past Director of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative. He is an author and editor of 3 recent books; (1) Wildlife Population Health (Springer); (2) Animals, Health and Society (CRC Press) and Climate Change and Animal Health (CRC Press).