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Home > About Us > Staff |
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StaffGlenn Phillips, Executive Director
Susan Elbin, Director of Conservation
Melissa Husby, Membership Director/Development Associate
Andy Bernick, Ecologist
Erik Karff, Manager of Education and Outreach
e-mail: ekarff@nycaudubon.org John Rowden, Citizen Science Manager
Elizabeth Craig, Research Associate
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As the Executive Director of New York City Audubon, Glenn can point to his work in the environmental field starting at the tender age of 8. Glenn began with a traveling environmental education program, bringing his collection of reptiles and amphibians to local kindergarten classes for hands-on presentations. Glenn started watching and learning about birds at about the same time, inspired by the burrowing owls, western meadowlarks, and loggerhead shrikes which inhabited the fields between his house and his school in northern California.
Prior to joining NYC Audubon, Glenn worked to establish the Prospect Park Audubon Center as the premier site in Brooklyn for environmental education since it's opening in 2002. As the Park's Vice President for Education, Glenn was also responsible for Lefferts Historic House and the Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment, a new small public high school operated in partnership with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the NYC Department of Education.
Glenn has also worked at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, where he helped develop the Everett Children's Adventure Garden, a hands-on outdoor museum within the Botanical Garden. Following the Garden, Glenn worked at the Columbia University Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, running adult education programs in conservation biology.
Director of Conservation, Dr. Susan Elbin is an ornithologist who has been working in the field of behavioral ecology and conservation for more than 20 years. Susan’s specialty is avian ecology and conservation of colonial waterbirds. She is on the Board of Directors for the Waterbird Society and, more locally, is co-chair of the Harbor Herons Subcommittee of the Habitat Working Group for the Harbor Estuary Program. Susan is an adjunct professor at Columbia University.
Before coming to NYC Audubon, Dr. Elbin was the Director of Wildlife Trust’s New York Bioscape Initiative, regional landscape-level approach to address issues dealing with human health, wildlife health, and ecosystem health. She has also worked in a variety of departments at the Wildlife Conservation Society, including the Bronx Zoo Education Department, Ornithology Department, and the Science Resource Center. While at WCS she led a variety of projects including studies of avian ecology and behavior in disturbed/restored grassland habitats and social behavior and use of space in bird exhibits at the Bronx Zoo (Bronx, NY, USA).
Elbin holds an MS degree in Ecology from The Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University.
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Originally from Fairbanks, Alaska, Melissa grew up across the street from a migratory waterfowl refuge and has fond memories of seeing sandhill cranes, Canada geese, and mallards on their way north each spring. As a former tour guide who led trips to the Arctic Circle and Prudhoe Bay, she has an informal background in wildlife conservation issues and environmental education. She has a masters in Museum Studies and is currently pursuing a degree in non-profit management.
Melissa works with NYC Audubon members to administer their benefits and keep them informed about upcoming programs. She also coordinates the Fall Roost Benefit and other development activities. Previously she worked at Brooklyn Children’s Museum, doing research and writing about the museum’s collection before moving into a grant-writing role and managing BCM’s Corporate Membership program.
Andy Bernick, Ph.D. has been the Harbor Herons Project's Nesting Survey Leader since 2005. Andy first became involved with NYC Audubon in 1999, when he accompanied Paul Kerlinger on a wading bird survey at Isle of Meadows. This inspired Andy to study Black-crowned Night-Heron foraging ecology in NY/NJ Harbor, and he earned his Ph.D. in Biology from the City University of New York in 2007. Andy also designed and lead NYC Audubon's first Harbor Herons Monitoring Program in 2003. He is a resident of Alexandria, VA and is presently employed as an ecologist with AKRF, Inc.
Dr. John Rowden has a long-standing passion for birds that has led him around the world in pursuit of research and conservation. He received his Ph.D. in Zoology from Duke University studying the evolution of display behavior in a group of Australian parrots. After graduate school he joined the curatorial staff of the Wildlife Conservation Society, working both at the Bronx and Central Park Zoos, where he led field research on the behavior and conservation of pheasants in Southeast Asia and flamingos in Latin America and served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University. After a stint as Curator of the Auckland Zoo in New Zealand, he worked as a senior researcher for the New Zealand Kiwi Foundation where he focused on using scientific research to develop more effective strategies to ensure that people and birds could share the local landscape. As Manager of Citizen Science, Rowden works to involve more New Yorkers in the conservation of the birds populating our urban landscape.
Before joining NYC Audubon, Liz completed her undergraduate studies in Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology at Columbia University and worked as a program assistant for Dr. Susan Elbin at Wildlife Trust. Liz has been studying Double-crested Cormorants and their impacts on NY Harbor island nesting habitats, and is continuing her studies of NYC colonial waterbirds in graduate school at Cornell University beginning in Fall 2008. In addition to her work with birds in NY Harbor, Liz is an avid birder and a part-time employee at The Raptor Trust wild bird rehabilitation center in Millington, NJ. 
