Board and Advisors
Dr Rosie Trevelyan
Director, Cambridge
Rosie is a passionate advocate of capacity building as a vital tool for effective conservation. A zoologist with a PhD from Oxford University, she has been at TBA from the beginning, creating the courses that TBA runs and making sure TBA’s teaching has real and lasting impact. Rosie has been a leader, partner and contributor on a variety of conservation projects around the globe, ranging from institutional capacity building, through developing and testing teaching materials, to integrating social issues in conservation.
Dr Lisa Thomas
Chair of Board
Lisa was appointed Chair of the Tropical Biology Association in January 2021. She holds a first class degree in Natural Sciences and a PhD in Zoology, both from the University of Cambridge. Lisa is now a freelance consultant, working with senior leaders and leadership teams to coach and develop leadership skills, enhance strategic thinking and drive organisational change. She has served as trustee of Sapere, the UK’s national charity supporting Philosophy for Children.
Dr Robert Jehle
TBA Board
Robert is a population biologist with an unexplainable fondness for amphibians and rainforests. He is a Reader at the University of Salford (UK), where he heads the Biology & Wildlife subject area. Robert is also a student alumnus of the TBA and was the first to publish a TBA project in a peer reviewed journal. Robert has taught on TBA courses in Tanzania and Malaysian Borneo. Robert heads the membership committee of the TBA Board.
Chris Jones
TBA Board
Chris is Vice Chair of Teneo, advising large, complex businesses on strategy and communications. Chris’ interest in conservation comes from advising companies on sustainability challenges and from his time as a journalist with Channel 4 News when he worked extensively in Africa. His landed his first job in journalism after chronicling an eight month journey driving the length of Africa. Chris leads our communications and marketing work on TBA Board.
Professor Ara Monadjem
TBA Board
Ara is Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Eswatini and a fellow of the Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria. He is a biodiversity specialist with a focus on the ecology and systematics of African mammals and birds. He specialises in field-based studies to advance knowledge of rare and threatened species, and to understand their ecological roles and ecosystem functions in natural and agricultural landscapes. His most recent book is African Ark Mammals, Landscape and the Ecology of a Continent. Ara convenes the Committee for Conservation & Capacity Building.
Professor Helen Roy
TBA Board
Helen is an ecologist and principal scientist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Her research focuses on the effects of environmental change, particularly biological invasions, on biodiversity and ecosystems. Helen was a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Assessment Report for Europe and Central Asia. Helen enjoys science communication and public engagement with research, which led to her interest in citizen science. Helen was awarded the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition of contributions to biodiversity research, science communication and citizen science and is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society.
Conservation and Capacity Committee
Dr Mwangi Githiru
Dr Iroro Tanshi
Dr Fezile Mtsetfwa
Fezile from Eswatini participated in the TBA course in Tanzania in 2014. She is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa in the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences. She is currently researching impacts of climate change on savannas and woodland landscapes. A recent publication (2023) looked at how two dominant African savanna trees will continue to respond to climate changes.
Dr Lily-Arison Rene de Roland
Honorary Trustees
Paul Brakefield
Honorary Trustee
Paul is an evolutionary biologist who works with butterflies and other insects. He is interested in how the diversity of patterns on butterfly wings evolved. He is the former director of the Museum of Zoology at the University of Cambridge and is an Emeritus Professor of Zoology at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Trinity College. Paul is a founder member of TBA’s council and previously was Chair. Paul continues to act as an ambassador of TBA as an honorary trustee.
Professor Tim Clutton-Brock
Honorary Trustee
Tim is a zoologist and former Prince Philip Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on behavioural ecology, population dynamics and evolutionary biology. He is known for his long-term studies of meercats and deer. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society. Tim co-founded the Tropical Biology Association with Steve Stearns, and is former Chair of trustees.
Professor Steve Stearns
Honorary Trustee
Steve is a zoologist and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. He specialises in life history evolution, which links the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology, and in evolutionary medicine. He co-founded the Tropical Biology Association with Tim Clutton-Brock and is former Chair of trustees.
Recent Board Members and Advisors
Professor Ryszard Laskowski
TBA Advisor & recently resigned Trustee
Ryszard is a professor, ecotoxicologist and ecologist at Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University. He specialises in the impact of toxic substances on population dynamics and life histories of organisms; ecology of ecosystems – processes of decomposition and mineralization of organic matter. He has taught on TBA courses in Uganda and runs tropical field courses for students from Jagiellonian University. Ryszard continues to advise us on our Membership work on TBA Council.
Dr Kate Lessells
TBA Advisor & recently resigned Trustee
Kate is a behavioural and evolutionary ecologist interested in the selection pressures shaping a broad range of life-history characters including clutch size, mating systems, cooperative breeding, dispersal, oviposition strategies and sex allocation. Her research has involved experimental studies, chiefly of wild bird populations, but also of laboratory populations of insects, and theoretical studies using optimality and game theory models.
Dr Christian Schulze
TBA Advisor & recently resigned Trustee
Christian H. Schulze is an animal ecologist and senior lecturer at the University of Vienna. His main research interests are community ecology, conservation biology and island biogeography with a particular focus on birds. His university teaching includes lectures on bird ecology and tropical biology as well as field courses on changes in terrestrial vertebrate communities along environmental gradients in tropical landscapes and other aspects relevant to nature conservation.
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