Moderated Panel
with Dr. Pierre Formenty,
Dr. William Karesh,
Dr. Jean Vivien Mombouli,
and Dr. James Deutsch

moderated by
Dr. Steve Osofsky

About Dr. Steve Osofsky

Steven A. Osofsky, DVM
Senior Policy Advisor, Wildlife Health
Wildlife Conservation Society–Field Veterinary Program
Oakton, VA

Dr. Steve Osofsky first experienced East Africa in 1984-85 as a Harvard University Traveling Fellow, observing wildlife species in Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda while examining conservation challenges from a variety of perspectives including those of local people, NGOs, and governments. As a veterinarian, he has worked in a variety of domestic and international contexts, with his most recent overseas post being that of the first Wildlife Veterinary Officer for the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks. He worked directly for the Government of Botswana for two years, and was able to have an active role in hands-on wildlife management as well as policy formulation. Veterinary issues (disease transmission, wildlife/livestock resource partitioning, etc.) have clearly become increasingly prominent as the livestock-wildlife interface expands to the point of buckling all over the world.

He has also worked in the zoological community, and served as the Director of Animal Health Services at the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Texas for several years. As an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Diplomacy Fellow, he served as a Biodiversity Program Specialist at USAID and focused on: ground-truthing Integrated Conservation and Development Projects; providing technical advice on wildlife management; and working with the USFWS on the Rhino-Tiger and African Elephant Grants Programs, on CITES policy, etc.

Dr. Osofsky had been with the World Wildlife Fund since 1998, serving as their Director, Field Support for species programs in Asia and Africa. In December 2002, he left WWF to join the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Field Veterinary Program (FVP) as the Society’s first Senior Policy Advisor for Wildlife Health. Helping the Field Veterinary Program to expand into the policy arena is an exciting challenge, one that logically builds upon the scientific and hands-on fieldwork that has long been the FVP’s hallmark.