About Our Board Members
A Dedicated Team with Collective Expertise
Our Team
Amanda Griggs
Amanda is a dedicated advocate who fell in love with the Wolf-Moose Project and all things Isle Royale during her first Moosewatch experience. Honored to contribute to the Project's self-sufficiency and extend its longevity as a founding member of the Wolf-Moose Foundation, she passionately works towards its conservation goals..
Erin Parker
Erin has been visiting Isle Royale for more than 20 years- first as a student, then a backcountry ranger working for the National Park Service, and now as a Moosewatch trip leader where she's led five teams over the years. Her favorite parts of Moosewatch are seeing parts of the Island through a different lens and meeting all the folks who choose to participate in hard, dirty, off trail work for their vacations! In her non-Isle Royale-life, she manages two nature centers for a regional parks system, working to connect others to the natural world in their own backyards.
Michael George
Michael was Chief Naturalist at the Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority in Southeast Michigan. He has been a volunteer with the Wolf-Moose Project since 2007. He has been visiting the Island since 1983, both hiking and canoeing. He has provided interpretive programs at the Island on several occasions, and currently also sits on the board of the Isle Royale & Keweenaw Parks Association.
Sarah Hoy
Dr. Sarah R. Hoy has been leading research on the wolves and moose of Isle Royale since 2017 and is an assistant professor at Michigan Technological University, where she teaches courses on conservation science and research methods. Prior to researching wolves and moose on Isle Royale, she won an award for her research on birds of prey and contributed to a diverse set of research projects focused on conserving insect, amphibian and mammal species in the United Kingdom and Latin America.
John A. Vucetich
Dr. John A. Vucetich has been leading research on the wolves and moose of Isle Royale since 2000. He is also a distinguished professor at Michigan Technological University, where he teaches courses on population biology and environmental ethics. He’s testified before both houses of the U.S. Congress on wolf conservation, and he is the author of Restoring The Balance: What Wolves Tell Us About Our Relationship With Nature (2021) and The Biology And Conservation Of Animal Populations (2024).
April Willbur
April is a founding board member and treasurer for the Wolf-Moose Foundation. She has worked for 35 years in philanthropy. She looks forward to the adventure of Moosewatch expeditions each year, searching the island for bones and other data in support of this unique research. As an avid backpacker and kayaker, Isle Royale is one of her favorite places to enjoy time in nature.
Jeff Holden
Jeff has been coming to Isle Royale off and on since 1977. He's been working with and supporting the Wolf-Moose Project for over 20 years leading groups searching for moose bones with Moosewatch. Jeff loves the Island rain or shine (prefers shine) and the people associated with the Project. In real life, Jeff is a mild-mannered data guy in healthcare in southeast Michigan.
Rolf Peterson
Dr. Rolf O. Peterson is a professor emeritus at Michigan Technological University and has been leading research on the wolves and moose of Isle Royale since the 1970s. He has authored more than 100 papers on wolf ecology and The Wolves of Isle Royale: A Broken Balance (2007). He is responsible for discoveries so basic that they are now considered common knowledge – discoveries such as wolves’ tendency to kill weakened prey and discoveries about the importance of winter severity on wolf predation.
Adrienne Detanico
Adrienne never thought she would like camping and hiking, and then she found herself on Isle Royale in 2018. Now she likes nothing better than traipsing through a cedar swamp looking for a moose skull. As a former attorney, and now professional organic gardener and urban farmer, she revels in the immersive experience of Moosewatch, other long-distance hiking adventures, and birding in her Chicago community.
Douglas Smith
Douglas W. Smith was the the project leader for the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Restoration Project in Yellowstone National Park from 1997 until his retirement in 2022. He worked as biologist for the Yellowstone project starting in 1994. Prior to Yellowstone, he worked on Isle Royale with wolves from 1979-1994, and also with wolves in Minnesota in 1983. He received his Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Biology from the University of Idaho, and a Master of Science in Biology from Michigan Technological University. Smith received his Ph.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno, in the program of Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology.
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