Board of Directors

We are proud and grateful to include the following on our Board of Directors:

Please support the Cougar Fund by visiting our Donate page, or by shopping in our Store. Thank you.

Tom Mangelsen : Co-Founder, Director

[+ ZOOM] Tom Mangelsen, Co-founder and Director, The Cougar Fund © Thomas D. Mangelsen

Image of Tom Mangelsen, Co-founder and Director, The Cougar Fund

Tom Mangelsen is one the most widely recognized natural history photographers in the world and his work is frequently seen in major publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian, Time Magazine, GEO, and Life.

Tom's extensive film and photographic record of a family of mountain lions during their unprecedented 42-day reprieve on the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming culminated into the book Spirit of the Rockies: The Mountain Lions of Jackson Hole, the first and only publication of its kind to depict the behaviors of mountain lions in the wild. Currently in its second printing, this book served as the timely inspiration for what has become The Cougar Fund.

Mr. Mangelsen's photographs are represented through his Images of Nature galleries in sixteen locations across North America, and his books include the bestselling Images of Nature: The Photographs of Thomas D. Mangelsen (1988); Polar Dance: Born of the North Wind (1996), which won the BEA Award for Best of Small Press of 1997 and was featured on Good Morning America and The Today Show. Tom is the recipient of the BBC Nature Photographer of the Year and NANPA Photographer of the Year and is the co-founder of The Cougar Fund and also sits on the boards of The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Stewards of the Platte, Polar Bears Alive!, and Vital Ground.

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Cara Blessley Lowe : Co-Founder, Director

[+ ZOOM] Cara Blessley Lowe, Co-Founder and Director, the Cougar Fund

Image of Cara Blessley Lowe, Co-Founder and Director, the Cougar Fund

Cara Blessley Lowe is a writer and photographer based in Los Angeles, California. An avid lover of the outdoors and wild places, she has traveled to India, East Africa, the Canadian Arctic, South America and Japan, observing and documenting wildlife around the world.

After reviewing more than 10,000 of Tom Mangelsen's photographs of wild cougars taken in the winter of 1999, she conceived and wrote "Spirit of the Rockies: The Mountain Lions of Jackson Hole". One year later she began production on the companion documentary, writing and producing "Spirit of the Rockies: The Film", incorporating personal interviews, extensive hunt footage, and 16mm sequences of the mountain lion family filmed by Mr. Mangelsen. It is through the book and film that the plight of cougars has been exposed to an ever-widening audience, bringing attention to the cause and leading to the creation of The Cougar Fund.

In addition to being the staff writer for Images of Nature, Cara's nonfiction work has been published through the University Press of Colorado in the book entitled "Listening to Cougar" along with Marc Bekoff ,as well as on the Environmental News Network and in the anthology, "The Gift of Rivers". She also works as script supervisor in television and film in Los Angeles, including spots for McDonald's, MCI, Chevy, Kellogg's, and the Fox Network.

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John E. Swallow: Director

[+ ZOOM] John Swallow, Director, the Cougar Fund © Tom Mangelsen

Image of John Swallow, Director, the Cougar Fund

John Swallow developed a love and respect for nature from his earliest days on family camping and fishing trips. In 1972 he worked with the American Cetacean Society to educate people on the plight of the California Gray Whale. Later he trained and handled big cats, primates and elephants for Marine World, Africa, U.S.A. in Redwood City, California. John collaborated on production of The Ocean Symphony, a series of PSA's for the Ocean Conservancy and various partner conservation groups. John also sits on the board of Vital Ground, an organization working with both private and public concerns to protect and preserve North American grizzly bear populations and habitat.

John has also pursued artistic expression since receiving his degree in Design and Photography from California State University, Long Beach. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Visual Effects Branch, John has been a pioneer in cutting-edge visual effects from his early career as Vice President of Production at Apogee Productions, Executive Producer at Pacific Data Images, and in his current position as Executive Vice President of Production Technology at Universal Pictures. John lives with his wife Lori in Los Angeles, California.

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Dr. Marc Bekoff : Director

[+ ZOOM] Marc Beckoff, Director, the Cougar Fund

Image of Marc Beckoff, Director, the Cougar Fund

Marc Bekoff is Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and is a Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society and a former Guggenheim Fellow. In 2000 he was awarded the Exemplar Award from the Animal Behavior Society for major long-term contributions to the field of animal behavior. Marc is also an ambassador for Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots program, in which he works with students of all ages, senior citizens, and prisoners, and also is a member of the Ethics Committee of the Jane Goodall Institute. He and Jane co-founded the organization Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: Citizens for Responsible Animal Behavior Studies in 2000 - www.ethologicalethics.org

Marc is on the Board of Directors of The Fauna Sanctuary and The Cougar Fund and on the advisory board for Animal Defenders, http://www.ad-international.org the Laboratory Primate Advocacy Group, and Project Coyote http://www.projectcoyote.org. He has been part of the international program, Science and the Spiritual Quest II http://www.ssq.net/ and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) program on Science, Ethics, and Religion. Marc is also an honorary member of Animalisti Italiani http://www.animalisti.it/ and Fundacion Altarriba http://www.altarriba.org. In 2006 Marc was named an honorary board member of Rational Animal http://www.rational-animal.org and a patron of the Captive Animals' Protection Society http://www.captiveanimals.org. In 2009 he was named a member of the Scientific Expert Advisory Panel of Voiceless, The Fund for Animals http://www.voiceless.org.au and a faculty member of the Humane Society University

Marc's main areas of research include animal behavior, cognitive ethology (the study of animal minds), and behavioral ecology, and he has also published extensively on animal issues. He has published more than 200 papers and 22 books, including Species of mind: The philosophy and biology of cognitive ethology (with Colin Allen, MIT Press, 1997); Nature's purposes: Analyses of function and design in biology (edited with Colin Allen and George Lauder, MIT Press, 1998), Animal play: Evolutionary, comparative, and ecological perspectives(edited with John Byers, Cambridge University Press, 1998), Encyclopedia of animal rights and animal welfare (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998), and a book on the lighter side, Nature's life lessons: Everyday truths from nature (with Jim Carrier, Fulcrum, 1996). His children's book, Strolling with our kin was published in Fall 2000 (AAVS/Lantern Books) as was The smile of a dolphin: Remarkable accounts of animal emotions (Random House/Discovery Books). The cognitive animal: Empirical and theoretical perspectives on animal cognition(edited by Marc, Colin Allen, and Gordon Burghardt) appeared in 2002 (MIT Press), as did Minding animals: Awareness, emotions, and heart (Oxford University Press) and Jane Goodall and Marc's The Ten Trusts: What we must do to care for the animals we love (HarperCollins). Marc has edited a three volumeEncyclopedia of Animal Behavior (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004), and a collection of his essays titled Animal Passions and Beastly Virtues: Reflections on Redecorating Nature was published by Temple University Press (2006).

A summary of Marc's research on animal emotions titled The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy and Why They Matter was published in 2007 by New World Library and his and Jessica Pierce's book on the evolution of moral behavior titled Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2009. Marc has also edited a four-volume Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships: A Global Exploration of our Connections with Animals for Greenwood Publishing Group (2007) and he and Cara Blessley Lowe have edited a book of readings on cougars titled Listening to Cougar (University Press of Colorado, 2007). Marc's book Animals Matter: A Biologist Explains Why We Should Treat Animals with Compassion and Respect was also published in 2007 (Shambhala Publications) and Temple University Press published Marc's children's book, Animals at Play: Rules of the Game in 2008. The two-volume revision and expansion of Marc's 1998 Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare was published in November 2009 (ABC-CLIO) and The Animal Manifesto: Six Reasons For Expanding Our Compassion Footprint was published in February 2010 (New World Library). Marc is working on a number of new books including Ignoring Nature: Animal Losses and What We Must Do About Them -- Now (University of Chicago Press) and Rewilding Our Hearts (New World Library). He is also working with Steven Kotler https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-playing-field on a project dealing with the emotional, moral, and spiritual lives of animals.

Marc's work has been featured on 48 Hours, in Time Magazine, Life Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, The New York Times, New Scientist, BBC Wildlife, Orion, Scientific American, Ranger Rick, National Geographic Kids, on NPR, BBC, Fox, Natur GEO, in a National Geographic Society television special ("Play: The Nature of the Game"), in Discovery TV's "Why Dogs Smile and Chimpanzees Cry," and in Animal Planet's "The Power of Play" and National Geographic Society's "Hunting in America." Marc has also appeared on CNN, Good Morning America, and 20/20.

In 1986 Marc became the first American to win his age-class at the Tour du Var bicycle race (also called the Master's/age-graded Tour de France) (more here http://web.mac.com/bwallace629/BMCT/MarcBekoff.htm). Among Marc's hobbies are cycling, skiing, hiking, and reading spy novels.

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Webb Blessley : Founding Director

[+ ZOOM] Webb Blessley, Founding Director, The Cougar Fund

Webb Blessley has over twenty-three years of experience in the corporate, venture capital, and real estate fields. An architectural engineer by education, Webb retired from McDonald's Corporation as Vice President of Real Estate and Construction Worldwide in 1995. In 1991 he renewed a long-time relationship with WalMart by installing over 2000 McDonald's in the retailer's stores, establishing a blueprint for their Worldwide expansion program followed to this day. In addition to his developments in business, Webb was the founder of the Ronald McDonald Camp for Children at Eagle Lake and has served on numerous scholarship boards.

Currently Webb is associated with Powerski International, XS City and New Media's portfolio of companies, among them MoonCrescent Studios, Whiz-Bang Labs, FlipDog.Com, Talk To and TeleSuite.

Post-retirement, Webb returned to his architectural roots and now works as a contact source in alternative building and solar-power technology, consulting on projects using ecologically-sound materials such as straw bales to maximize energy efficiency and foster sustainability. He and his wife Donna divide their time between Laguna Beach, California, and the straw bale home they built in the Mojave desert in southern Nevada.

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Patricio Robles Gil : Director

[+ ZOOM] Patricio Robles Gil, Director, The Cougar Fund

Patricio Robles Gil founded Agrupación Sierra Madre and Unidos para la Conservación in 1989 and 1992, respectively. He is currently the president of both organizations, working on three ecoregions: the Gulf of California, the Chihuahuan Desert, and the Mayan jungles. Additionally, Unidos para la Conservación is the local partner bringing the 9th World Wildneress Congress to Mexico in 2009, marking the first time the Congress will be held in Latin America.

He has been editor of 33 books about nature. Some of the more recent works published are: Megadiversity, Hotspots, The Gulf of California, and The Red Book: The Extinction Crisis Face-to-Face. He is an advisor for the Mexican Section of the Mesoamerican Corridor, the Fund for Environmental Communication and education, Mexico's Protected Natural Areas, and World Wildlife Fund-Mexico. He has photographed 23 of the regions in this book. His photographic work has appeared in several publications. He has received various awards, such as an honorable mention from the BBC and the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA).

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Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE : Director

[+ ZOOM] Jane Goodall, Director, the Cougar Fund © Thomas D. Mangelsen

Image of Jane Goodall, Director, the Cougar Fund

Perhaps the most recognizable face of the conservation movement, Dr. Jane Goodall is the world's renowned primatologist-turned-activist who brought the lives of chimpanzees to the forefront of animal behavior studies with her groundbreaking research conducted in the field in Tanzania over four decades.

A longtime champion of animals and their well-being, Dr. Goodall, along with Genevieve, Princess di San Faustino, founded The Jane Goodall Institute in 1977. Today, her international environmental and humanitarian program for young people, Roots & Shoots, has 3000 4000 active groups in more than 70 countries. Dr. Jane Goodall is the author of many bestselling books including her recently published bestselling autobiography, "A Reason for Hope."

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Dr. Rick Hopkins : Director

[+ ZOOM] Rick Hopkins, Director, the Cougar Fund

Image of Rick Hopkins, Director, the Cougar Fund

Rick Hopkins is Co-Owner of Live Oak Associates, an ecological consulting firm based in San Jose, CA. Rick has a Ph.D in Wildlands Resource Science from University of California at Berkeley, an M.A. in Biology and a B.A. in Wildlife Zoology from San Jose State University in San Jose, CA. His dissertation focused on cougars, more specifically, the Ecology of the Cougar in the Diablo Range. Rick has spent 25 years in the field researching cougars and has testified before Game and Fish Commissions in 5 different states.

He is the author or co-author of many publications including The Density and Home Range Characteristics of Mountain Lions in the Diablo Range of California, Monitoring Population Trends of Large Carnivores using Track Transects and Current Techniques Used in the Research of Pumas. As an ecologist, Rick has specialized in population ecology, predator ecology, wildlife/habitat relationships, conservation biology, and in developing conservation strategies for many threatened and endangered species throughout California.

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Corinne E. Rutledge, ESQ : Director

[+ ZOOM] Corinne Rutledge, Director, the Cougar Fund

Image of Corinne Rutledge, Director, the Cougar Fund

Corey Rutledge of Cheyenne, WY is a litigator with Lathrop & Rutledge and has worked on various legislative matters over the years. She has been with the firm since June 1989 and became a member/shareholder in 1991. Prior to being asked to join the Lathrop & Rutledge firm, Corey practiced as assistant state public defender managing and trying major case felonies. After Corey joined the firm of Lathrop & Rutledge, she gained experience in a broad range of litigation. Currently, Corey concentrates her practice in the areas of professional liability defense, principally, medical malpractice defense and defense of cases involving products liability, catastrophic personal injury claims, commercial and employment disputes, as well as insurance and bad faith litigation. She practices in all of the federal and state courts in Wyoming, and is admitted to practice in the Federal District Court of Colorado and in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Corey's father was an officer in the United States Army, and she had the privilege of living in Washington, D.C. for her formative years where she participated in many youth activities related to politics and the arts, as well as a wide range of community service activities. Corey left Washington, D.C. for Colorado State University in 1970 where she focused her studies in political science, art, and natural resource preservation. Corey's first career was in the area of real estate and new home construction. She formed American West Properties, Inc. in 1979 and specialized in commercial properties and new home construction. Corey completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Southern Colorado in Pueblo and then entered law school at the University of Wyoming. Corey and her children fell in love with Wyoming, and after she graduated they made Wyoming home.

Corey has served on several non-profit boards and is currently serving on the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Foundation Board, as well as the the Cougar Fund. She has been active in professional organizations and has served as the President of the Laramie County Bar Association and President of the Defense Lawyers Association of Wyoming. She has been state chairman for the Defense Research Institute, and currently is a member of the International Association of Insurance and Defense Counsel. Corey and her husband, Kent Rutledge, together have three daughters.

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Susan Tyrrell Richards : Director

[+ ZOOM] Susan Richards, Director, the Cougar Fund

Image of Susan Richards, Director, the Cougar Fund

Susan Richards, a native of Wisconsin and Illinois, is currently residing in Boulder and Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Ms. Richards has been a resident of Boulder since 1979, where she was drawn to continue her lifelong passion for the outdoors while pursuing her education. She is an attorney serving of Counsel to the law firm of Berg Hill Greenleaf & Ruscitti, LLP, with a practice emphasizing estate planning, business organization and real property law. She a received her Juris Doctor and Masters in Business Administration from the University of Colorado in 1992, where she was Managing Editor of the University of Colorado Law Review. She received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Colorado in 1983.

Prior to her practice of law, Susan was licensed as a stockbroker in 1984 and was employed with the firm of Dain Bosworth in Boulder as an Investment Executive. She worked with all aspects of portfolio management for her clients, and worked extensively within the municipal bond, corporate bond, and equities markets.

Upon graduating law school in 1992, Susan began her law practice in Boulder and joined the Board of Trustees of The Community Foundation serving Boulder County, which was then in its second year of existence. She was a board member for 12 years, serving in many capacities including Chair of the Board, Chair of the Legal Committee and Chair of the Finance Committee, helping to grow the organization from its start up phase to its current level of endowment of approximately $31 million. The Community Foundation is a grantmaking organization, funding in five areas: the arts, the environment, civic involvement, education and health and human services. The Foundation funds primarily in Boulder County, but also assists donors to make grants worldwide and has given over $30 million in grants since its inception. In addition to her work with The Community Foundation, Susan has served on the fundraising committee for the Emergency Family Assistance Association of Boulder.

In addition to her law practice and philanthropic work, Susan has operated an orchard on land she and her husband Tom purchased in the North Fork Valley of Colorado. In addition to growing peaches and apples, she began a vineyard using solely organic practices. Sue has since sold the orchard after placing a conservation easement on the property to prevent its development and to preserve its integrity as an orchard, vineyard, or ranchland in perpetuity.

Susan and her husband Tom enjoy their time with family and friends in Colorado hiking, skiing, and biking and enjoy frequent travel to expand their cultural exposure and to experience the natural world.

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