Who We Are

Carolyn is a broadly trained anthropologist whose work emphasizes conservation in coupled human-natural systems. She has 15 years of experience studying how human communities and wildlife populations respond and adapt when confronted with changing socio-economic conditions and burgeoning economies of wildlife. Her applied work in western and central Africa is driven by a commitment to futures that include both humans and wildlife through socially responsible, locally inclusive conservation practice. Carolyn has contributed to policy and practice on human rights in conservation sectors and biocultural approaches to understanding the direct and indirect cultural, political and health effects of protected areas management for marginalized populations. She is a co-creator of Partners for Red Colobus, with Joshua Linder and Alexandra Hofner, a program which supports the implementation of education, outreach, and other priority activities (e.g., ecological surveys) identified in the Red Colobus Conservation Action Plan. Carolyn is also co-founder of Programme Communautaire Sapeli, with Elizabeth Hall Grembo, Tessa Ullmann, and Robert Sambo, a program in the Central African Republic that works to identify sustainable solutions to community engagement in conservation.

Liz Grembo Hall is an anthropologist who specializes in transdisciplinary health research. She has her BA in Biological Anthropology and Anatomy from Duke University and her MA in Anthropology from Purdue University. Liz is currently working toward the completion of her PhD in Anthropology from Purdue University. Her doctoral research in the Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas (APDS)(2017-2018) allowed her to get to know the communities living in and reliant upon APDS for their livelihoods. Toward the end of her doctoral research she teamed up with Rory Young, of Chengeta Wildlife, and Carolyn Jost Robinson, to support local initiatives for community-led conservation and localized socioeconomic development. Working together with Carolyn, Robert Sambo, and Tessa Ullmann this work ultimately became Programme Communuataire Sapeli. Liz is committed to working with and always learning from the tenacious communities of Dzanga-Sangha.

Alexandra is a current PhD candidate at the University of Georgia in Integrative Conservation and Anthropology. Her doctoral research is based in Sri Lanka and focuses on habitat suitability assessments of langur monkeys using bioacoustics and human-wildlife interactions in an agricultural landscape.  In 2016, as part of her MSc in Primate Conservation from Oxford Brookes University, Alexandra conducted research on red colobus monkey abundance in Cameroon’s Korup National Park and investigated human hunting practices that impact these Critically Endangered monkeys. She has over ten years experience in environmental education and outreach in the United States and abroad.. Using these skills, she has co-founded Partners for Red Colobus with Dr. Joshua Linder and Dr. Carolyn Jost Robinson and participated in several outreach and education projects aimed at engaging the public in red colobus conservation activities. 

Joshua is based in the United States and received his PhD in anthropology (with a focus in evolutionary primatology) from City University of New York / New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology. He has almost 20 years of experience studying primates in African tropical forests (especially in Cameroon) and applying scientific data to inform primate conservation efforts.  Joshua is also a professor of anthropology and has taught face-to-face and online courses in biological anthropology, primate behavioral ecology, and primate conservation at James Madison University (Virginia) and Duke University (North Carolina).   He is one of the lead editors of the Red Colobus Conservation Action Plan, a document that aims to spark the study and conservation of Africa’s most endangered group of monkeys.  As Chair of the Red Colobus Working Group, he helps to ensure the implementation of priority conservation recommendations identified in the action plan.  Joshua also co-founded the Partners for Red Colobus program with Alexandra Hofner and Carolyn Jost Robinson, which supports priority actions identified in the Red Colobus Conservation Action Plan.

Tessa is a researcher based in the Central African Republic, focusing on how local community engagement and participatory research can reduce hunting pressure and the illegal trade in threatened species. She received her MSc in Conservation and International Wildlife Trade at the University of Kent (UK) in 2018, where she got her start on pangolins - one of the world’s most trafficked mammals. Soon after, she joined the Sangha Pangolin Project, a small pangolin rehabilitation and research project in the Dzanga Sangha Protected Areas Complex in the Central African Republic, where she spent three years leading ecological research and a community program that incentivized local people to participate in data collection on pangolins. She is a member of the IUCN Pangolin Specialist Group and co-chairs the Local Communities and Cultural Engagement working group. Tessa co-founded The Forest Collective to continue her work in Dzanga Sangha through Programme Communautaire Sapeli, supporting inclusive and sustainable community programs that protect wildlife and deliver benefits to local communities.