Ernie Flores is a Director in a large aerospace company where he has been pursuing his passion for things that fly. Born in Los Angeles, California, Ernie spent his formative years between Southern California and Mexico City. He graduated college as an Electrical Engineer from California State University, Long Beach. While his career on the Space Shuttle and many advanced aircraft has been a dream come true, Ernie’s true encounter with his passion for flight came in the mid 1990’s, when his eyes were opened to the natural world of birds. In one of his earliest explorations, Ernie came upon the Nature Conservancy Kern River Preserve (now Audubon), which was the beginning of a close association with the Preserve, its leaders and conservation and outreach goals. Ernie has enjoyed volunteering and supporting the preserve in numerous ways and has become a supporter of the conservation and environmental movement, animal rights, and bird research, rehabilitation, and advocacy organizations. He has also been a regular volunteer for the SSRS. Outside of work, Ernie enjoys helping the needy, exploring the wilderness, hiking, downhill skiing, genealogy, birding and especially searching for owls in the Southern Sierra. A favorite quote of his is: “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened” – Anatole France.
As a South African who grew up watching birds and traveling through remote parts of Africa, birding and the outdoors are Wendy’s passion. She has lived in different parts of the world, traveled through many more, and remains at heart an avid outdoor enthusiast who loves to watch and study birds on any continent from a bike, a kayak or on foot. After many years at UCLA, Wendy is now based in Hood River, Oregon and spends her weekdays figuring out how to obtain funds and support for an accessible healthcare clinic. Weekends are of course birding, biking, swimming, kayaking in any order so long as it is outside. In addition to being Treasurer for SSRS, Wendy is Vice-President of the Kern River Valley Heritage Foundation, a land trust and steward of more than 5,000 acres in the Kern Valley.
Jason is a long-time environmental advocate, whose passion for the Sierra’s and its wildlife was instilled at a young age from time spent during winters and summers in the range. He currently serves as Bank Climate Advocates’ (BCA’s) Executive Director and Legal Director. Prior to co- founding BCA in 2022, for 12 years he served as Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation’s Senior Attorney, General Counsel and International Program Director, where he used his science and legal background to advocate and litigate to protect the environment and the lifeways of indigenous peoples. While with Wishtoyo, Jason also led and managed an estuarine restoration project, and established a watershed monitoring and research program. In 2016, he was awarded a Daily Journal and callawyer.com Clay Award for Environmental Attorney of the Year. Before his time with Wishtoyo, he helped over 700 Nicaraguan community members and sugarcane workers pursue and submit a complaint to the International Finance Corporation to improve their working conditions and protect their environment. Jason’s educational background includes a Masters of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environment Studies, and a law degree from Vermont Law School. He has also served as Adjunct Faculty at California State University Channel Islands, where he twice taught Environmental Law & Policy.
David Younkman, now retired, has spent his entire career advancing conservation and protecting the environment. David began his career with two decades at The Nature Conservancy, beginning as Ohio State Director and leaving as Vice President for Resources of the Latin America and Caribbean Program, where he developed TNC’s Adopt an Acre Program and their Parks in Peril Initiative. David also served as Executive Director for American Oceans Campaign and as Western Regional Director for the National Wildlife Federation. David spent twelve years at American Bird Conservancy (2009-2021), serving as Chief Conservation Officer and later as Vice President for the Western Region, where he helped establish ABC’s western programs to protect birds and their habitats. David received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Miami University and a Master of Science in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tim grew up in rural Pennsylvania and developed a love of wildlife and the outdoors, particularly birds, early in life. Since then, his passion for birds and conservation has led to a bachelor’s degree in Biology and a master’s degree in Range and Wildlife Management. He has worked with many different bird and wildlife species and published research on grassland bird fire ecology and dove nesting ecology. Over his career thus far he has worked for, and with, a variety of Federal agencies across the western US. He is currently a fish and wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in New Mexico where he works with a great team that partners with agencies and industry to conserve endangered species while sustainably managing land and resources. In his off time, Tim is an avid birder and wildlife photographer and enjoys traveling and hiking with his wife Becky. It was after a move to Ridgecrest in 2011 that he discovered the wonderful place that is the Kern River Valley. The KRV quickly became a favorite birding destination and he got involved with bird banding efforts at the Canebrake Ecological Reserve and helped run the Kern River Valley Christmas Bird Count for several years.
Mary J. Whitfield is the research director at the Southern Sierra Research Station. She holds a B.S. degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology from U.C. Davis, and a M.S. degree in Biology from California State University, Chico. She has also taken post graduate classes at UCSB. She has over 25 years of fieldwork experience in the U.S. and has also worked in numerous Latin American countries. Mary has worked on a long-term breeding ecology study of the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher since 1989. Over the past several years, she expanded her Willow Flycatcher work to their wintering areas in Mexico, Central America and South America. She has been the research director of the Southern Sierra Research station since the station opened in 2000.
Nick earned his bachelor’s degree in Conservation Ecology from Sterling College in Vermont in 2011, and he completed his PhD in Biology at Northern Arizona University in 2023. Nick’s research interests include riparian ecology, species distribution modeling, bioacoustics, and endangered species recovery. Originally from New England, Nick has been living and working as a biologist in the west since 2011 and has worked extensively with Yellow-billed Cuckoos, Southwestern Willow Flycatchers, Mexican Spotted Owls, and many other avian species.
Michelle has been our office manager since 2008 and comes to us with a diverse and unique background. She is a practicing nurse with expertise in acute care, skilled nursing, home health and Hospice care. She has also worked with developmentally disabled children and adults teaching them daily living skills. Michelle also loves animals; she has several dogs and cats, but her background suggests that she has a particular fondness for birds. In addition to her guineas, she has bred and hand-raised parrots for twenty-six years! It started as a hobby and turned into a successful business. However, raising parrots requires daily care and the desire for a little free time compelled her to reduce her parrot flock to one chatty Amazon parrot. Her hobbies include ceramics, plants, gardening, and bonsai.
Pat has an Undergrad degree in Biology from Notre Dame, a Masters in Zoology from University of Maryland, and a PhD. in Behavioral Ecology from University of Toronto, focusing on evolution of insect mating behavior, sexual selection, and life history evolution. After a decade doing academic research and teaching, that included radio tracking insects with the USDA, Pat moved to working at a large county-level park system managing permits, research, and monitoring. This is where he came into contact with the MOTUS wildlife tracking system(https://motus.org), setting up four stations to track migratory birds as they cross Lake Erie. Pat has tons of experience with field work, research and monitoring, data management, and analysis. At SSRS, he’s leading our MOTUS station projects, and will be assisting with data analysis as well as grant applications aimed at strengthening the role the station plays in regional conservation. Pat’s hobbies include hiking, camping, and river boating.
Annie has been conducting avian field research since 2009 and earned a B.S. in Wildlife at Humboldt State University in 2015. Over many years of field work she has predominantly worked in neotropical ecosystems, grasslands, and riparian habitats across the U.S. and in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Ecuador. Annie started birding at the age of 9 in Washington state, and this interest quickly developed into a passion for conservation. In her free time, she enjoys birding, naturalizing, traveling abroad, backpacking, doing most visual art forms and rock-hounding, among other things. She first worked for SSRS in New Mexico in 2021, and is now a full-time field biologist at the station.
Sasha grew up in Santa Cruz, California where early on he was instilled with a love for nature. After amassing field guides and acquiring his first binoculars around age 10, birds increasingly became the center of his focus. He earned a B.S. degree in Wildlife from Humboldt State University in 2016 and has since worked on a wide variety of avian field studies throughout the western hemisphere. Sasha first worked for SSRS in 2021 as a crew lead on the New Mexico Pinyon-Juniper birds project, and later was hired on to the Weldon field staff where he is currently involved with much of the field research there, particularly Motus. In addition to birding, he enjoys learning about, seeking, and documenting most other forms of biodiversity and traveling (especially to the neotropics) to do so. His other hobbies include outdoor sports (backpacking, trail running, fishing, etc.), reading, and music.
John earned a B.S. in Natural Resource Management from Colorado State University in 1998, a B.S. in Biology from Western State College of Colorado in 2004, and an M.S. in Zoology from the University of Wyoming in 2008. For his master’s degree, John combined his love of birds and mountains to study Brown-capped Rosy-Finch habitat selection in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. In addition to rosy-finch research, he has worked on Black Swifts, Flammulated Owls, Gunnison Sage-grouse, Painted Buntings, Red Crossbills, and desert riparian birds research projects. As a SSRS Wildlife Biologist, John primarily conducts research and data analysis for our Kern Valley and Lower Colorado River Yellow-billed Cuckoo projects. He also contributes to the station’s other research projects and website and database development. Prior to his career in wildlife biology, John worked for eight years as an outdoor educator teaching outdoor recreation and leadership skills to high school and college students across the Southwest.
