Tripp Gorman, President
Fort Worth Zoo, Elephant Keeper

Tripp joined the EMA in 2001, the same year as his first EMA conference and the same year that he started volunteering around elephants at the Greenville Zoo. From there, Tripp went on to an internship at the Knoxville Zoo, and then onto another internship at the Riverbanks Zoo.

Tripp started his paid animal care career at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus (the Red Unit) in December 2006. He was hired on as a horse and zebra groom, but quickly moved on to what he joined for. After a year of being an elephant groom, Tripp became an elephant handler and stayed with the company for six years. After traveling across the country multiple times, he decided it was time to leave the road and start to settle down. Tripp's second job started at the Nashville Zoo in September 2012, where he started working with African elephants. After two years of being a keeper in Nashville, he was promoted to Elephant Manager, and even though it was a short stint, Tripp enjoyed it and learned a lot. Once the elephants left the Nashville Zoo, Tripp was once again on the search for a job and that is how he landed at the Fort Worth Zoo!

During his elephant career, Tripp has had the enjoyable opportunity to not only meet many wonderful elephants, but also a lot of great people. He has been given the chance to help in many different aspects of elephant care. When asked about his favorite part of the job, Tripp responds, "Working with calves, and also interacting with the public, who I love to engage and inspire."

Amy Mathews, Vice President  

White Oak Conservation, Elephant Collection Manager

Amy has worked with exotic animals for over 15 years, spending the majority of her time with elephants. In her career, she has worked with several multigenerational herds and gained invaluable experiences from her current and previous institutions. Amy joined EMA in 2015, in which time she assisted with the planning and facilitation of the annual conference, served as an associate editor and columnist for JEMA, and fulfilled the role as the chair of the Behavioral Enrichment Committee, where she established the comprehensive enrichment database. She firmly believes in EMA and its ability to harness individual passions and experiences towards a common goal.

Having directly worked with over 40 elephants at all life stages throughout her career, Amy would consider herd management and staff development to be her two favorite aspects of the job. Having a front-row seat to "the lightbulb moment," whether it be an animal or keeper, is the most rewarding part of her job. Amy looks forward to collaborating with others in the elephant community to further enhance elephant care, management, and welfare.

Kristin Windle, Secretary  

Houston Zoo, Elephant Supervisor

Kristin has been a part of the Houston Zoo for her entire career. She began as an intern and volunteer in another department and quickly moved to the Elephant department as a keeper aide volunteer in 2012. She was officially hired as a part of the team in 2014 and was promoted to Elephant Supervisor in 2022. Kristin has been honored to help care for 14 Asian elephants over the years, including being involved in multiple elephant births, managing a bachelor group, and caring for geriatric elephants. She has been a part of EMA since 2014, including time spent as a part of the Husbandry Committee, and is also involved in the North American EEHV Advisory Group and AZA Elephant TAG.

Kristin believes that maintaining a strong community of elephant holders is one of the most important parts of managing elephants and through being an EMA member for the last decade, it has been an honor to develop relationships with barns and individuals all over the country.

Maura Davis
Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, Curator of Large Mammals

Maura Davis is the Curator of Large Mammals at Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, managing both the Pachyderm team/collection as well as the Hoofstock team/collection. As the Elephant Manager at Denver Zoo, she has the privilege of leading a team who cares for a group of six male Asian elephants. They have developed a strong training program through coaching team members and creating an open environment for feedback and innovation. Maura's team has addressed a wide range of behavioral challenges, including reducting stereotypy in the oldest bulls, integrating an all-bull herd and managing their social needs, collecting semen from the males regularly, managing six males in musth and socializing during the period, and training for medical care and participation in research projects. Maura brings 14 years of elephant experience to the Board of Directors, specifically knowledge on bull management, behavioral approaches to reducing aggression, staff training and engagement, and animal training skills.

Adam Felts
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Senior Curator of Animal Care, Director of Animal Wellbeing

Adam has been working at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium since 1997. He began his full-time career as a pachyderm keeper working with both African and Asian elephants and black rhinos. Between 2008 and 2013, Adam was promoted to Head Keeper and then to Assistant Curator of the Asia Quest/Pachyderm department, assisting in managing the region's collection, such as elephants, rhinos, sun bears, tigers, lions, ungulates, birds, and flying foxes. Adam played a vital role as a Keeper/Head Keeper and Assistant Curator, managing elephant care professionals' training, elephant husbandry, elephant exercise programs, and the training of the elephants. In 2013, he was promoted to the Assistant Curator of the new Heart of Africa region, assisting with the opening of that area and then promoted to Curator of the Heart of Africa and Asia Quest regions in late 2015.

During the beginning of Adam's career, he was a major contributor to the creation of the International Rhino Keeper Association. At its inception, Adam was elected President and enjoyed organizing and planning the Biennial Rhino Keeper Workshops and other vital professional development opportunities for rhino keepers throughout the world.

Adam holds a large number of roles in the zoo community as the Program Leader for AZA's SAFE Asian Elephant Program, AZA's Elephant Strategy Task Force, Vice SSP Coordinator for the Masai Giraffe and African Lion SSP, various steering committee memberships (including the Elephant TAG Steering Committee, Antelope/Giraffe TAG Steering Committee, Rhino TAG Steering Committee, Giraffe SAFE Steering Committee, and Black Rhino SAFE Steering Committee), and Board Member of the Elephant Managers Association.

Brett Haskins
Roger Williams Park Zoo, Supervisor of Africa

Brett has been working with elephants for over 25 years, including in Chicago, New England, and range countries. He has worked with both African and Asian elephants in free and protected contact, and his specialty is the husbandry and enrichment of geriatric elephants ("the old kids need love too!"). Brett has a good working knowledge of the biomechanics and anatomy of elephant feet and has successfully treated foot pathology by developing treatment plans coupled with preventative maintenance schedules. Other focal points of his career has been the construction and implementation of aggressive behavioral enrichment strategies. As we all know, elephant care is a non-exacting science. It is continually evolving and laying the groundwork for future generations to build upon. In Brett's career, almost all of his successes have derived from failure (some catastrophic) to build a repertoire of current "best-practice" methodology.

When asked about the future of the elephant community, Brett said, "Our elephant community is filled with a diverse group of young and older individuals (from all over the globe) with an interconnected passion to share trailblazing, as well as, tried and true ideas! Merging all of these efforts into one, stream-lined organization is the key to the future of the EMA. Future elephant professionals will be compelled to join and remain active within our organization because of the willingness to have their ideas heard and feel validated within the community! It takes strong leadership to guide and inspire already passionate individuals and together we can focus emotion and science based evidence into a collective force."

Ellen Wiedner, VMD, Dipl. ACVIM (LAIM), Dipl. ACZM, Dipl. ECZM (ZHM)
Hyrax Veterinary Consulting, LLC

Ellen has been providing veterinary care to elephants for almost 20 years. She has consulted on elephants throughout North America as well as internationally, and she has written multiple papers and book chapters on elephant medicine. For the past several years, she has owned her own business as a zoo relief veterinarian and megavertebrate consultant (Hyrax Consulting, LLC).

Bryan Amaral
Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Senior Curator

Bryan is currently Senior Curator at Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. He has been in the animal/elephant industry since 1996, working at three different elephant-holding organizations. Bryan has been a member of the EMA since 2000, was involved in the Membership Committee from 2004−2017, and served multiple terms on the EMA Board of Directors. The value of the EMA is immeasurable. For Bryan, it has been a pleasure to be involved with the organization and its value to his career is great. The knowledge gained and contacts made over the years has greatly improved the lives of the elephants he has cared for, the elephant professionals he supports, and has helped the elephant industry as a whole grow as well. Bryan was appointed to the Executive Committee in 2017, and he is proud to continue to serve the EMA and support the Board of Directors. The EMA is an important organization and Bryan is delighted to help continue the great work of our organization and improve the lives of elephants everywhere.

Shawn Finnell
White Oak Conservation, Elephant Collection Manager

Shawn is passionate about many aspects of elephant management, including training, welfare, and facility design. He believes the best thing about working with elephants is that we are students; no matter how much we experience, elephants always show us that we have more to learn. Shawn began working with wildlife in 2003 and transitioned into elephants in 2006. He has experience with African and Asian elephants throughout various management styles. Shawn has had the fortune to work with multiple breeding herds, bulls, and calves. While at Oklahoma City Zoo and Oregon Zoo, he has experienced significant exhibit and program expansions. Currently, he is one of the elephant collection managers at White Oak Conservation.

Shawn became an EMA member in 2006; he has been an active member, participating in the Conservation, Training, and Membership Committees. In 2017, Shawn was elected to the Board of Directors. While attending multiple annual EMA conferences, he organized numerous training and welfare workshops. Currently, Shawn is the chairperson for the Training Committee. Shawn believes that EMA is a great organization to see many approaches to elephant care. The EMA has been a tremendous resource, as it's the largest group of elephant professionals united to improve these fantastic animals' lives.

Cecil Jackson, Jr.
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Elephant Manager

Cecil Jackson, Jr. has been working at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden (CZBG) for almost 50 years. He became a member of EMA in 1988 and sat on the Ethics Board for several years, and during his time of the Board of Directors, he was Vice President of EMA. Cecil has dedicated his career to maintaining the highest standards of care in captive elephant management, which has primarily focused on the welfare and safety of the animals and his staff.

Cecil has successfully driven the CZBG elephant program to meet and surpass evolving elephant management standards. His practical experience and historical perspective are highly valuable to the future of elephant management in zoos.

Mike McClure
McClure International Consulting

Mike has been working with elephants for 20 years and in the zoo field for 30 years. Having started his career working around the zoo in all other animal areas, Mike always found the elephants more interesting than any other species because of their intelligence and because of the opportunity to learn more about behavioral modification and conditioning. After spending a lot of time watching the elephant team in action, Mike was given the chance to join the team.

Mike joined the EMA in 2004 and was elected to the Board of Directors in 2008, where he immediately got involved in the Legislative, Nominations, and Communications Committees, with which he is still involved today. In 2013, he was elected EMA President and served until his term ended in 2015. Mike has also served on the Ethics Committee since 2014 and has been on the Training Committee since its inception.

For Mike, his favorite part of the job is getting to see people and elephants work together to learn and grow. "Seeing an elephant or someone that I have trained being successful in their environment is the most rewarding thing I have ever experienced."

Vernon Presley
Fresno Chaffee Zoo, Curator of Elephants and Ungulates

When Vernon was a child, his family would regularly visit zoos. He fell in love with the excitement of seeing a variety of animals from all over the world. When Vernon started to learn about the passion that the staff had for their animals and about the incredible work that they do, he decided that he needed to devote his career to this field and share that passion.

Vernon began his elephant career at the Toronto Zoo in 1996 with seven female African elephants. He started his full-time zoo keeping job in a different area of the zoo, but was transferred to the elephant team four months later. There was no looking back: "I consider it an honor to be able to work with these amazing animals and I am just as eager to learn about them as I did over 20 years ago."

Jessica Scallan
Tulsa Zoo, Elephant Manager

Jessica is Elephant Manager at the Tulsa Zoo. She has dedicated over 20 years to our industry, specializing in geriatric care and bull management. Anyone who is an EMA member or has attended an EMA conference knows Jessica. Her positive, upbeat attitude is contagious. Jessica has served EMA in several capacities over the years. She was elected by her peers to the EMA Board of Directors five times starting in 2005, where she served ten years including two as President and six as Secretary. During these years she has focused her time on the Education, Enrichment, Communications, and Awards Committees; she was the previous JEMA Art Director; led strategic planning for our organization; organizes our annual conference; and writes press releases when needed. In October 2017, Jessica was appointed to the Executive Committee by the Board of Directors. "I am so grateful for EMA. I have learned so much and have made lifelong friends from around the globe. EMA has allowed me to develop many skills in various leadership roles. I am thankful for the opportunity to serve on the Executive Committee. I believe in our mission and I am honored to assist in the organization's growth."