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. 

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."

Cecil Jackson, Jr., Vice President
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.

Cecil is the board liaison for the following committees: Training and Husbandry

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.

Kristin is the board liaison for the following committees: Membership, Merchandise

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.

Maura is the board liaison for the following committees: Honors and Awards, Communications

Calli Hamlin
ABQ BioPark, Assistant Curator of Elephants

Calli Hamlin has been caring for elephants for over a decade, starting as an intern at the Oklahoma City Zoo in 2013 and then working as a support keeper at the ABQ BioPark while completing her bachelor's degree. After graduating, she secured a permanent position and advanced over the years, now serving as the BioPark's Assistant Curator/Elephant Manager. She has had the privilege of working with Asian elephants at all life stages, including newborn calves, bulls in musth, and geriatric cows. She has been integral in training and treating elephants in various scenarios, including EEHV and TB, as well as birth preparations and novel procedures such as acoustic pressure wave therapy and enucleation. Since joining EMA in 2018, she has presented at three annual conferences, joined the Training and Husbandry Committee, and was selected in 2023 as an inaugural participant of the EMA Leadership Cohort Program. She was given the honor of debuting the program to conference attendees in Columbus, helping to garner significant interest for the next cohort. She was then selected to serve as a facilitator for the 2025 cohort, helping to collectively grow the next generation of leaders. Calli believes in leading with compassion and humility, recognizing that mutual growth comes from sharing both successes and failures. EMA enables our community to connect, learn, and provide the best possible care for both elephants and staff.

Calli is the board liaison for the following committees: Conservation, Grants, Professional Development

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."

Brett is the board liaison for the following committees: Behavioral Enrichment, Nominations, Scholarships

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).

Ellen is the board liaison for the following committees: Elephant Medicine, Research

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 Program Manager

Shawn is passionate about all aspects of elephant management, including training, welfare, facility design, and leadership. He believes the most rewarding part of working with elephants is the constant opportunity to learn—no matter how much experience one has, elephants always find a way to teach us more.

Shawn has primarily worked with Asian elephants across a variety of management styles. He has had the privilege of working with multiple breeding herds, bulls, and calves. During his time at the Oklahoma City Zoo, Oregon Zoo, and White Oak, he has played a key role in several major facility and program expansions. He currently serves as the Elephant Program Manager at White Oak and as the North American Asian Elephant Studbook Keeper.

A dedicated member of EMA since 2006, Shawn has served on the Board of Directors for five years and subsequently was nominated to serve on the Executive Committee. He values EMA as a unique organization that brings together a wide range of perspectives and approaches to elephant care. For Shawn, EMA is an invaluable resource—uniting the largest community of elephant professionals committed to improving the lives of these extraordinary animals.

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."