Featured Staff – Stella Emvula – Livestock Guarding Dog Program

Stella was born only four hours from CCF in Windhoek, Namibia, where she lived until she was three years old. At the age of three, Stella moved to France with her family. They lived an adventurous life, often traveling and moving because her father was an ambassador. After living in France for seven years, Stella briefly lived in Ethiopia and then moved to New York for about six years. Stella completed high school in New York, then attended the University of Plymouth in the UK, where she studied animal behavior and welfare. A few years into her studies, her father retired, and Stella and her family moved back to Namibia. Of the places she has lived, New York is Stella’s favorite, but she hopes to visit France again someday because she hasn’t been since she lived there at a young age.

As she was working to figure out her next steps, Stella was accepted by CCF for an internship. She came to CCF for three months as an intern, returned in February of last year, and was hired as a staff member in the Livestock Guarding Dog program in May. Stella loves animal husbandry and is interested in human-wildlife conflict, so she feels the dog program is the perfect balance between the two. Stella is hoping to soon return to and finish school, possibly through University of Namibia’s wildlife management and ecotourism course.

Stella’s parents still live in Windhoek along with one of her brothers, and her oldest brother lives in California, where he works at Dreamworks. Stella’s other interests and hobbies include photography and baking. She became interested in baking thanks to her mother, who always baked and cooked throughout Stella’s childhood and taught her how to do so along the way. Stella then worked at a bakery called ABC Cakes while living in New York, where she homed in her cake decorating skills. Stella tries to bake as often as possible while at CCF in Namibia.

Stella’s favorite part of working at CCF is the people. She loves that everybody comes from such different backgrounds and such a wide variety of places. She has found that everybody is helping conservation in a completely different way, which reminds Stella of how many aspects there are to conservation. Stella also finds it rewarding to hear stories about dogs doing amazing things to protect livestock, and she loves working with the dogs here at CCF.

Remember, 2019 is the Year of the Livestock Guarding Dog! Celebrate dogs saving cheetahs with Stella and the rest of CCF staff!