Management team
Sarah Day Maisonneuve is Founder and Director of Wildlife Connection. Sarah is responsible for defining the long-term vision of the project, and directing program activities. She is from Colorado and started working in Tanzania in 2008, when she began her PhD dissertation work on human elephant conflict. Sarah quickly grew passionate about the importance of creating benefits to people of living with elephants as a means for both protecting elephants, and improving human livelihoods. She has since devoted herself to establishing and growing Wildlife Connection.
Zablon Fataely is the Field Site Manager for Wildlife Connection. He is responsible for coordinating program activities and in the field. Zablon is from Northern Tanzania and holds B.A degree in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Dar es Salaam. He joined the Wildlife Connection team in February 2019. Zablon is broadly interested in Wildlife management and Natural resources conservation. He is passionate about inspiring other people to appreciate the natural world as much as he does.
Felisto Kabonyela is the Education Coordinator for Wildlife Connection. He is responsible for managing our education program, and directing community outreach activities. Felisto has worked for the project since 2008, when he collected data on human elephant conflict events in his village of Makifu. While working as interpreter for our education program in 2010, Felisto discovered a deep passion and talent for teaching. He has since worked closely with volunteer biologists and local educators to formalize and widely implement our environmental education curriculum in primary schools.
Kessi Kuandama is the Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC) Coordinator for Wildlife Connection. Kessi supervises enumerators in all 23 villages in our study area to record incidents of human elephant conflict, and implement mitigation strategies to reduce elephant crop-raiding behavior in conflict “hotspots.” This includes erecting and maintaining barrier fences and working with village leadership to implement land use planning strategies that minimize conflict with elephants. Kessi has received formal training in beekeeping and beehive management, and leads workshops to train local villagers in beekeeping. Kessi has worked for for the project since 2008.
Upendo Mtama is Park Guide for our park visitation program. Upendo is a graduate of the locally run Mkuyu Guiding School and joined our team in 2016. Her primary responsibility is teaching local people about the surrounding wildlife whilst on park trips. She is extremely knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna, and her passion for the subject is contagious! It’s impossible not to smile right along with her as she describes the fascinating ecology of elephants and other wildlife in Ruaha.