Dr. Herman received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Minnesota (Mpls-St.Paul), her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from UC Davis, and graduated from the Veterinary Management Institute at Colorado State University, Fort Collins.

Prior to becoming Oakland Zoo’s full-time Vice President of Veterinary Services in September 2019, she spent fifteen years providing medical, surgical, and dental services to the Zoo in a part-time capacity. Her veterinary skills were invaluable to the California Condor Recovery team and all the animals at Oakland Zoo ­— from Amazon milky tree frogs to giraffes. At the same time, she worked for more than two decades to develop a full-service avian, exotics, wildlife, dog and cat practice in San Francisco.

Her goals in leading Oakland Zoo’s veterinary team are to maintain and constantly expand the most intentional, effective, high impact culture and evidence-based veterinary care for both the animals under the Zoo’s stewardship and those that comprise our conservation work.

Dr. Herman lives in Berkeley with her husband and son. She cherishes the Oakland Zoo and is honored to provide the highest level of care for our fascinating and amazing animals.

Amy Gotliffe has a mission to connect human beings to nature, envisioning a planet where all species live in peaceful co-existence, which makes her a perfect fit for Oakland Zoo.

With certifications in humane education, nature-based leadership, conservation psychology, human-wildlife conflict resolution, nature interpretation and influencing conservation behavior change, Amy’s work at the Zoo focuses on reconnecting people with our sense of belonging to the natural world and better understanding our impact on it.

As VP of Conservation at Oakland Zoo, she coordinates events and projects to meet the conservation goals of the Zoo around the world and in the Bay Area. These efforts range from building a Conservation Speaker Series, to leading international conservation expeditions to producing awareness events to coordinating the Zoo’s on-site sustainability efforts. Amy drives massive and enthusiastic, inter-departmental efforts to conserve biodiversity around the globe and in our own backyards.

Dr. Deana Clifford, Senior Wildlife Veterinarian, California Department of Fish and Wildlife

Dr. Clifford is the lead non-game veterinarian at the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) and a research scientist at the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center. She has expertise in epidemiologic study design, disease risk analysis and disease management of wildlife species. Deana has worked on the individual and population health of a range of non-game species including Island foxes, Amargosa voles, Pacific fishers, grey foxes, American pika, and others. She regularly works in the field participating in trapping, veterinary assessment, and performing epidemiologic studies. Additionally, she has considerable experience managing large projects with multiple collaborators in interfacing research, such as Envirovet and the Health for Animals and Livelihood Improvement Project in Tanzania.

Dr. T. Winston Vickers, Director, Lead Wildlife Veterinarian, California Mountain Lion Project

Dr. Vickers is a wildlife research veterinarian with the University of California-Davis Wildlife Health Center and the Institute for Wildlife Studies. He obtained his DVM at Oklahoma State University and practiced on large, small, and exotic species for over 20 years before returning to school to get his Master of Preventive Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis with a focus on wildlife disease and ecology. He has been studying mountain lions and other wildlife for 20 years and directs the UCD Wildlife Health Center’s mountain lion study. He collaborates extensively with other mountain lion researchers, NGO’s, and governmental agencies in the state and elsewhere in the West, and his studies of mountain lions address issues of mortality, connectivity, habitat use, genetics, disease, conservation, and reducing negative interactions with humans and livestock.

He also collaborates on studies involving other wildlife species studies, including bobcats, Channel Island foxes, Santa Cruz Island scrub jays and other avian species. He worked for many years with the Wildlife Health Center’s Oiled Wildlife Care Network on oil spill response, and is the author or a co-author of over 35 peer reviewed publications, one book chapter, and numerous white papers and reports to wildlife and other government agencies. He co-developed and directed a 9-part series of short educational documentaries about mountain lions, as well as a one hour film, that have been viewed nearly 1.8 million times and can be viewed here (https://www.camountainlions.com/). His work has been featured in numerous articles in the newspapers and in several books, and he has twice been named one of the 100 most influential individuals in Orange County, CA by the Orange County Register