On becoming a primatologist:

I always knew that I liked animals but it didn't occur to me until I got to college that you could actually get a job doing something with animals. When I started out at university I actually wanted either to be a lawyer or to study art history. I took a biological psychology course by a professor — Dr. Carl Erickson — and I thought it was absolutely fascinating. The focus of the course was mostly animal behavior. I went to coffee with the professor and asked if there was any way I could get involved. He said 'Well you can crunch data for me and volunteer in my lab.' So I started out doing that with him at the Duke Primate Center. Then it evolved into working with him for several years and doing my senior thesis project with him and him saying 'You know, you actually can do this for a living if you go to graduate school.'

When I started looking for graduate schools I knew that I was primarily interested in big social mammals — I had narrowed it down to marine mammals or elephants or primates or social carnivores. I looked around for professors at universities that focused on those species, and on behavior and conservation. I heard from the woman that ended up being my advisor — Dr. Anne Pusey — at the University of Minnesota. She was looking for someone to work on the Gombe chimp project. I had a couple of choices about places to go but working on Jane Goodall's chimps was something I didn't even imagine would be possible and that was clearly my first choice.

On the Lincoln Park Zoo's conservation program:

This zoo really prides itself on being a conservation and education organization. I was hired into this new position as Director of Field Conservation to really push the zoo's limits and focus on wildlife conservation outside of the zoo. The zoo has long been involved in conservation programs for captive populations of animals. They were looking to add a focus for wild populations

We actually have a pretty giant scientific staff for a small, free zoo. We have about 14 staff scientists who have research as a major part of their job description. The staff includes a nutritionist, an epidemiologist, a population biologist, and we're adding an endocrinologist position. We really have a wide spectrum of research expertise here that has served us well in working with captive populations. As more and more wild populations get smaller and more isolated and need more management we thought that our skill would be appropriate for some wild populations.