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 Gorilla Foundation Board Members
Governing Board

Penny Patterson Penny Patterson, PhD
Chairman of the Board
President and Director of Research, The Gorilla Foundation

Dr. Penny Patterson received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Stanford University where, as a graduate student in 1972, she began working with one-year-old Koko, a western lowland gorilla, thus beginning the longest ongoing interspecies communication study ever undertaken. For 30 years, Dr. Patterson has worked with Koko, who has advanced further with sign language than any nonhuman. Able to reveal her thoughts and feelings through the use of 1,000 gestural words, Koko provides unique insight into the mind of a gorilla.

In 1976, Dr. Patterson, Dr. Ronald Cohn, and the late Barbara F. Hiller established the Gorilla Foundation to benefit gorillas living in captivity and those struggling to survive in the rapidly disappearing African rainforest. Dedicated to the preservation, protection and propagation of gorillas and other endangered primates, the Foundation disseminates information about animal intelligence, gorilla behavior and psychobiology through its website (www.gorilla.org), journal, and scientific meetings and articles, and is currently developing a 70-acre gorilla sanctuary on the island of Maui, Hawaii.

The author of more than 40 publications including The Education of Koko with Eugene Linden, and the award-winning children’s books, Koko’s Kitten and Koko’s Story, Dr. Patterson has earned numerous awards and honors — including National Geographic Society grants and the Rolex Award for Enterprise — for her work with Koko and fellow gorillas, Michael and Ndume.

Ron Cohn Ronald Cohn, PhD
Treasurer of the Board
Vice President and Photo-Documentarian, The Gorilla Foundation


Dr. Ron Cohn has been with the project from its inception and shares Dr. Patterson's life-long commitment to the gorillas. Ron serves as an authority figure for Koko and his presence is an integral part of their daily routine. His award winning pictures and films of the gorillas have helped to make the Gorilla Foundation a well known organization around the world.

Prior to co-founding TGF/Koko.org, Dr. Cohn received a PhD from the University of Illinois. He was a cell biologist at the Stanford Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics and did much of the initial ground breaking research in genetic engineering and membrane structure. He also discovered that adult cells make hyaluronic acid from glucosamine and led the way for glucosamine treatment for arthritis.
Maizie Sanford Mary C. Sanford
Secretary of the Board (Gorilla Foundation)
Director Emeritus÷Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Ltd
.

Mrs. Mary C. Sanford (Maizie) comes from a family with a long-standing background in Maui agriculture. Her grandfather, H.A. Baldwin, was head of the Maui Agricultural Co. and descendant of Protestant missionaries from New England in 1830. Her father, J. Walter Cameron, was head of Maui Pineapple Co., Ltd. Maizie graduated from Dana Hall School in 1948, and Smith College in 1952. Maizie has served on the Board of Maui Land & Pineapple Co. for 25 years, and is currently Director Emeritus. Additional board service includes: Haleakala Ranch Co., and these non-profit organizations: J. Walter Cameron Center, Fred Baldwin Memorial Foundation, Hawaiian Mission Childrenâs Society, and the Gorilla Foundation. Currently Maizie writes two columns for the Maui Newsâ monthly employee newsletter and is also writing a bi-monthly column in the Maui News for its centennial year. The Maui News was a family-owned daily, founded in 1900. It was sold in February 2000 to Ogden Newspapers, West Virginia. Maizie has made possible the donation of 70 acres of land from Maui Land & Pineapple Co. for the Gorilla Foundation's Maui Ape Preserve (MAP). This gift is made in memory of her son, Allan G. Sanford, and the MAP Sanctuary is dedicated to Mr. Sanford.
Larry Tesler Larry Tesler
Head of the Board's Finance Committee
Technology Industry Consultant

Larry Tesler has served on the Finance Committees of several non-profit organizations, including Peninsula School in Menlo Park, California, where he co-led the establishment of an innovative fund-raising program that has endured for thirty years. He also served as a board director for ARM, the leading microprocessor intellectual property company, from its founding in 1990 through its initial public offering in 1998 and its first six years as a public company. A long-time innovator in the computer software and Internet industries, Tesler was Vice President and Chief Scientist of Apple Computer, Vice President of User Experience and Design at Yahoo! and Vice President of Shopping Experience at Amazon.com. His small company experience includes Product Fellow at 23andMe, a direct-to-consumer genetic testing company and President and Chairman of Stagecast Software, Inc., a children's educational software company. Following his graduation from Stanford University in 1965, Tesler conducted software research at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where he originated techniques such as cut, copy and paste that have become ubiquitous on personal computers. He first met Koko in 1989 after a group he headed at Apple delivered a gorilla-proof computer to the Foundation for her use.
Peter Roberts Peter Roberts
Vice President of Human Resources, Harbor Freight Tools

Peter Roberts, previously Vice President of North American Human Resources for Pioneer Electronics and Vice President of International Human Resources for Office Depot and Viking International, has extensive experience in operations management and Human Resources in the corporate world. He has been in his present position since 2006 and is responsible for all Human Resources activities for Harbor Freight Tools, a national retailer with over three hundred (300) stores as well as catalog and e-commerce operations
.
AVery Chumbley Avery B. Chumbley
Former Hawaii State Senator

Senator Chumbley has been a State Senator since 1994, representing the 6th District, South and East Maui-North Shore Kauai. In the Senate, he has served as the Vice President of the Hawaii State Senate, 1999 to present; Co-Chair, Senate Judiciary Committee, 1996 to present; State House 1992 to 1994; appointed Commissioner & Hawaii Steering Committee Member, Education Commission of the States (ECS); Directorate of Public Policies, World Sustainable Agriculture (WSAA); appointed Maui Representative, Hawaii State Board of Agriculture; appointed Maui Historic Commission. He is also President of the Wailuku Agribusiness Co., Inc. & General Manager at the Maui Tropical Plantation. Averyâs community involvement includes: President, Maui County Fair Association; Board Member, Maui Economic DeveloKoko.Orgpment Board; Board Member, Maui Visitors Bureau; Board Member, Maui Community Arts & Cultural Center; and Member, American Cancer Society
Former Governing Board Members:

the late Michael Crichton (Oct. 23, 1942 – Nov. 4, 2008) — see Tribute
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Advisory Board
Stewart Cheifet
Scientific Writer and Media Specialist
Former host of the award winning PBS series Computer Chronicles
Northern CA
Elizabeth S. Fry, Management Consultant, Nevada City, CA
Ruth B. Heller, Kentfield, CA
Barry Munitz, Los Angeles, CA
Ronald Reuther, Belvedere, CA
Michael Sack, Certified Public Accountant, San Francisco, CA
Phillip M. Shaw, Jr., Attorney at Law, San Francisco, CA
Jonathan Steel, Hampshire, England
James R. Wheeler, Oceano, CA
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Scientific Board
Dr. H. S. Robert Glaser, Professor of Biology, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
Dr. Edward J. Maruska, Executive Director, Cincinnati Zoo
Dr. Peter G. Veit, Regional Director for Africa, Center for International Development and Environment, World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.
Dr. Richard Wrangham, Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MS
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