Endangered Species Recovery Program

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Endangered Species Recovery Program Staff


Director

  • Jaime L. Rudd, Ph.D.

Coordinators Emeritus

Program Founder

GIS Manager

Bakersfield, California

CSU Stanislaus Campus (Turlock, CA)

Mojave Desert

  • Philip Leitner, Ph.D.

Research Fellows

  • David E. Grubbs, Ph.D.
  • James L. Patton, Ph.D.
  • Katherine Ralls, Ph.D.
  • Jeff Single, Ph.D.

Research Associates


Brian L. Cypher

Brian L. Cypher, Coordinator and Director of ESRP coordinates several of ESRP's research projects on San Joaquin kit foxes. Brian's research emphasis is canids and other predators, but other research experience includes work with small mammals, reptiles, ungulates, and plants. He has been involved with research and conservation efforts on animals and plants in the San Joaquin Valley since 1990. Brian received a Ph.D. in Zoology from Southern Illinois University in 1991.


Ellen Cypher

Ellen Cypher has been involved in research and conservation efforts for endangered plants and animals in the Central Valley and southern Sierra Nevada foothills since 1992 and has written recovery plans for numerous species. She was the Research Ecologist/Botanist for the California State University Stanislaus Endangered Species Recovery Program from 1992 to 2005, the Regional Botanist for the Central Region of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife from 2005 to 2014, and now provides botanical expertise as needed. Ellen has a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.


Nicole A. Deatherage

Nicole grew up in northern Virginia, and her passion for wildlife conservation started when she got a chance to see wild wolves while visiting Denali National Park, Alaska. Since then, she has studied wildlife biology in Virginia, Alaska, and California. Nicole joined the Endangered Species Recovery Program in 2018 when she started a masters degree at California State University Bakersfield, studying resource partitioning between four urban canid species. She is delighted to be working on wildlife conservation in the San Joaquin Valley with the Endangered Species Recovery Program.


Erica C. Kelly

Erica's passion for wildlife conservation began in November 2008 when she became a volunteer for the Endangered Species Recovery Program (ESRP). She earned her B.S. in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation in 2011 from UC Davis and her M.S. in Biology in 2017 from CSU, Bakersfield. She was a Scientific Aid for the Department of Fish and Wildlife for a few years and has worked for ESRP for the majority of the last 11 years. She primarily works on research projects involving kit foxes, small mammals, and lots of scat! She is also part of the Student Outreach Event Subcommittee for the Western Section of the Wildlife Society. Between that organization and outreach events with ESRP, she has had the opportunity to talk to and teach our youth about wildlife, conservation, and why it is important. Erica can be reached at ekelly@esrp.org.


Patrick A. Kelly

Patrick A. Kelly, Former Coordinator and Director of ESRP, is a Professor of Zoology at California State University, Stanislaus and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Biology at California State University, Fresno. His main research interests are in mammalian ecology and conservation, and his current research focuses on the conservation and recovery of endangered mammals in California. He joined ESRP as Assistant Director in July 1993 and became Director in January 1996. Pat received a B.Sc. from University College Galway, Ireland, in 1981, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990.


Bernadette Paul

Bernadette is a locally grown addition to ESRP. After graduating from UCDavis, Bernadette boomeranged back to Turlock to intern with a local congressman and coordinate a variety of community based programs. She and her partner randomly tend to their organic garden that is shared with foxes, an occasional runaway goat, and an assortment of fat felines with notched ears.


Tory L. Westall

Tory Westall has worked as a Research Ecologist with ESRP since 2009. She earned her B.S. in Biology in 2008 and her M.S. in Biology in 2015 from California State University, Bakersfield. Her thesis research was on parental care in urban San Joaquin kit foxes. Tory conducts research on several endangered species in the San Joaquin Valley, but primarily focuses on the San Joaquin kit fox.

Contact Information: Office Phone: 661-835-7810 Email: twestall@esrp.org


Daniel F. Williams

Daniel F. Williams, Founder of ESRP and Senior Scientist, also is Emeritus Professor of Zoology at California State University, Stanislaus. He founded ESRP in July 1992 and was Coordinator until his retirement in 2002. He continues to participate in ESRP programs on recovery of riparian brush rabbits, population ecology of giant kangaroo rats and blunt-nosed leopard lizards, and is a co-investigator on studies of Buena Vista Lake shrews and Coast Horned Lizards. His main research interests are in mammalian systematics, ecology, and conservation. Since retiring, he has pursued his hobby of photography and identification of Central Oregon flora. Dan received a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 1971.

Information Contact: esrpinfo [at] esrp.org