Caitlin O'Donoghue
Research Assistant
/ Gorilla Caregiver
Caitlin has always loved animals and known she wanted to work with them, and so looked specifically for a school that had zoology as a major, which is how she ended up at North Carolina State University. Throughout college, she volunteered at the local SPCA to be around animals as much as possible, and after graduating took a job as a veterinary technician at a veterinary hospital.
When she moved to San Francisco, she was extremely excited to discover the caregiver/research assistant position at the Gorilla Foundation, especially since she had no idea that this was where Koko resided.
"I had the book Koko's Kitten when I was younger, so meeting Koko for the first time was like meeting a celebrity (but much, much better). I think Koko is so important, because it's a lot more difficult to brush off the importance of the conservation mission when you have a personality like Koko to literally tell you what you'd be letting go extinct."
Caitlin's main career priority is to work to further species re-population efforts and prevent needless extinction.
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