As a veterinarian who has worked in East and southern Africa and beyond for many years, Steve Osofsky's DVM degree has taken him to regions characterized by a rich abundance of wildlife as well as pervasive human and animal health challenges. He first experienced East Africa in 1984-85 as a Harvard University Traveling Fellow. During his fellowship, Dr. Osofsky observed wildlife in Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda while seeking to understand conservation challenges from the perspectives of all involved parties, including the local people, nongovernmental organizations, and governments. Currently, Dr. Osofsky works with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Field Veterinary Program (FVP) as their first Senior Policy Advisor for Wildlife Health.

 

The model of considering conservation issues from a broad perspective has defined much of Dr. Osofsky's work for more than 20 years. Speaking in a recent radio interview, Dr. Osofsky noted that, “As conservationists, we need to be very sensitive to the realities of the places that we're working in. I think there's a real opportunity in looking at animal health, in looking at the relationships between people and their animals, and how that's relevant to our conservation objectives. In other words, if we can improve the health of people's livestock, that has huge benefits for protecting wildlife from diseases, and at the same time it has benefits for people. A lot of the diseases of concern can move between animals and people. And so by looking at the health entry point, I think that we can do several things. We can protect wildlife. We can protect livestock. And at the same time we can build new constituencies for conservation.”

 

Dr. Osofsky has pursued his veterinary career in a variety of domestic and international locales. His most recent overseas post was that of the first Wildlife Veterinary Officer for the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks. In this position, he worked directly for the Botswana government and had an active role in hands-on wildlife management as well as policy formulation.

 

He has also worked in the zoological community, for example, serving as the Director of Animal Health Services at the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas. As an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Diplomacy Fellow, Dr. Osofsky held the position of Biodiversity Program Specialist at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), focusing on ground-truthing Integrated Conservation and Development Projects; providing technical advice on wildlife management; and working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on the Rhino-Tiger and African Elephant Grants Programs, policy related to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), and other issues.

Dr. Osofsky's veterinary career--well outside the bounds of a traditional veterinary clinical career--has given him the opportunity to pursue a wide variety of program and policy interests. These have included park/buffer zone management and planning; wildlife conservation and sustainable development linkages; conflicts that arise where livestock and wildlife interface, including problem predator issues and disease concerns; endangered species management; the connections between wildlife research and management needs; and in situ and ex situ wildlife veterinary medicine.

 

In addition to his current position with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s FVP, Dr. Osofsky is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland and has served on eight World Conservation Union / Species Survival Commission (IUCN / SSC) Specialist Groups. Before arriving at the Wildlife Conservation Society, Dr. Osofsky worked with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), from 1998 through 2002, serving as their Director, Field Support for species programs in Asia and Africa.

 

For more information on the Wildlife Conservation Society’s AHEAD (Animal Health for the Environment And Development) initiative, please visit www.wcs-ahead.org.