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Gorilla
Foundation Board Members
| Governing
Board |
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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.
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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.
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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. |
Michael
Crichton
Author, FilmMaker ...
After
graduating from the Harvard Medical School, Michael Crichton
embarked on a career as a writer and filmmaker. Called
"the father of the techno-thriller," his novels
include The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Jurassic Park, and
Timeline. He has also written four books of non-fiction,
including Five Patients, Travels, and Jasper Johns .
He has sold over 100 million books and his books have
been translated into thirty languages and twelve have
been made into films. He is also the creator of the television
series ER. He is the only person to have had, at the same
time, the number one book, the number one movie, and the
number one TV show in the United States.
Always interested in computers, Crichton ran a software
company, FilmTrack, which developed computer programs
for motion picture production in the 1980s; for this pioneering
work he won an Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
Technical Achievement Award in 1995. His film Westworld
was the first feature film to employ computer-generated
special effects.
Crichton has won an Emmy, a Peabody, and a Writer's Guild
of America award for ER. |
Larry
Tesler
Vice President of Engineering, Amazon.com
Larry Tesler is a vice
president of Amazon.com, where customers can find and
discover anything they might want to buy online. From
1997-2001, he was President of Stagecast Software, Inc.,
a children's educational software company. Previously,
he served as Vice President and Chief Scientist of Apple
Computer, where one of the research groups that he headed
built a gorilla-proof computer for Koko. A graduate of
Stanford University, Tesler conducted software research
at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and
the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
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Peter
Roberts
Vice President of Human Resources, Pioneer
Electronics
Peter
Roberts, Vice President of 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 1999
and is responsible for all Human Resources activities
associated with the acquisition of Viking Office Products.
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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 Development
Board; Board Member, Maui Visitors Bureau; Board Member,
Maui Community Arts & Cultural Center; and Member, American
Cancer Society |
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Advisory
Board |
 Ina
K. Bendis,
M.D.,
J.D. Ph.D., M.S. (Management), F.C.L.M.
Specialist in Internal and Respiratory Medicine
Santa Clara, CA
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 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 |
| James
R. Wheeler, Oceano, CA |
| Dr.
H. S. Robert Glaser, Professor
of Biology, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
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| 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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