Cheetah Conservation Fund Announces Dates and Cities for Dr. Laurie Marker’s Spring 2018 U.S. Tour

Cheetah Conservation Fund Announces Dates and Cities for Dr. Laurie Marker’s Spring 2018 U.S. Tour

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 13, 2018) – Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) Founder and Executive Director Dr. Laurie Marker will launch a six-week tour with public and private speaking engagements in the U.S. with back-to-back events in Denver and Aspen, Colorado, on March 13 and 14, 2018. The theme of this year’s tour is “Disappearing Spots.” The theme refers to the 2016 landmark cheetah population study co-authored by Dr. Marker that identified the species’ swift decline and estimated the remaining population to be just 7,100 – down from 100,000 a century ago.

Traveling from her CCF Field Research and Education Centre in Namibia, Dr. Marker will talk about the plight of the cheetah and threats the species faces in the wild. Problems like human-wildlife conflict, habitat loss and loss of prey, and illegal trafficking have made the cheetah the most endangered big cat in Africa. Dr. Marker will also speak about her life’s work, including the research, education and highly successful conservation programs of CCF that helped make Otjiwarongo, the town where CCF is based, the “Cheetah Capital of the World.” Dr. Marker’s most recent publication, CHEETAHS: Biology and Conservation, a comprehensive textbook she co-authored and co-edited, will be available for purchase at all tour dates, with a portion of proceeds supporting cheetah conservation. By increasing public awareness of the cheetah’s situation, Dr. Marker believes people can make all the difference and help the world’s fastest land mammal outrun extinction.

Spring 2018 U.S. Tour
March 13 – Denver, Colorado
March 14 – Aspen, Colorado
March 17 – San Francisco, California
March 21 – Palm Springs, California
March 22 and 23 – Dallas, Texas
March 24 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
March 25 and 26 – St. Louis, Missouri
March 27 – Seabrook, South Carolina
March 28 and 29 – Washington, D.C.
March 31 – Monterey, California
April 3 – Palo Alto, California
April 4 – San Francisco, California
April 5 – San Jose, California
April 6 – San Francisco, California
April 8, 9 and 10 – Los Angeles, California
April 12 and 13 – San Diego, California
April 15 – Seattle, Washington
April 16 and 17 – Portland, Oregon
April 18, 19 and 20 – San Francisco Bay Area
April 21 – Redwood City, California (WCN Spring Expo)

Dr. Marker is available for media interviews while traveling on her tour, and media are invited to attend her presentations. Please inquire for details.

About Dr. Marker
Dr. Marker is a zoologist, research scientist and conservation biologist considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on the cheetah and human-predator conflict mitigation. Earning her DPhil at Oxford University, she has spent more than 40 years in the field studying cheetah biology, genetics, ecology and socio-economic issues related to conservation. She is credited with successfully mitigating conflict between farmers and cheetahs in Namibia and saving the lives of hundreds of cheetahs and other large carnivores with innovative, non-lethal predator control strategies, including the use of livestock guarding dogs and the advancement of communal and commercial conservancies.

Dr. Marker has received many awards in recognition including the 2015 Ulysses S. Seal Award for Innovation in Conservation, a 2015 E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Technology Pioneer Award and a 2015 Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal. Dr. Marker is also the recipient of the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in environmental science. She was named a “Hero for the Planet” by Time magazine and is a two-time finalist for the Indianapolis Prize, the top award in species conservation. Dr. Marker has been featured in Smithsonian and National Geographic as has appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show, Good Morning America and The Today Show.

About Cheetah Conservation Fund
Founded in Namibia, Africa, in 1990, Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) is the global leader in research and conservation of cheetahs dedicated to saving cheetahs in the wild. Dr. Laurie Marker, CCF’s Founder and Executive Director, is an American zoologist considered to be one of the world’s foremost experts on cheetah biology, ecology and conservation. She developed CCF’s holistic conservation strategy, which considers the needs of people, wildlife and the land and is credited with increasing the wild cheetah population in Namibia by almost 50 percent. CCF’s long-term studies monitor and analyze the factors affecting cheetah survival in the wild, and the findings provide the basis for developing conservation policies and education programs that have reached more than 450,000 Namibian farmers and school learners. CCF is a registered non-profit foundation in Namibia, Canada, the UK and the U.S., where it is listed as a “Four Star Charity” by Charity Navigator, recognizing sound fiscal management and commitment to accountability and transparency.

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For more information about CCF, please visit www.cheetah.org

CONTACT:
Susan Yannetti
202-716-7756
susan@cheetah.org

OR
Paula Martin
817-851-4070
paulam@cheetah.org