Kirsten Silvius, Ph.D.Program Officer
Kirsten Silvius is a program officer for the Andes-Amazon Initiative.
Born and raised in Venezuela, Kirsten completed her higher education in the United States. She received a B.A. degree in Biology and Romance Languages from Bowdoin College, Maine, and both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Zoology Department at the University of Florida. Trained as a terrestrial ecologist, her research has focused both on plant-animal interactions and on wildlife use and management by local and indigenous peoples. She has studied a diversity of animal species in Venezuela and Brazil, including agoutis, parrots, peccaries, beetles, and parasitic wasps, and has worked on wildlife management issues with the Xavante, Yanomami and Macuxi people of Brazil and Guyana.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Kirsten was a research specialist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Environmental Center, where she gained experience with watershed management issues and environmental impact regulations. Earlier she held adjunct professor positions and taught ecology courses at Florida Atlantic University and the State University of New York's School of Environmental Science and Forestry.