In Guanacaste, Costa Rica, our team makes it a priority to actively participate in the Área de Conservación Guanacaste’s on-site initiatives to conserve the park’s endangered dry forest by participating in the “¡Quiero dejar una huella verde! (“Leave a green footprint!”) campaign. As part of this program, which seeks to reduce the ecological footprint of tourists, we partake in quarterly forest cleaning events and engage groups of local and international students through presentations on the value of primates in the ecosystem, our goals in studying them, and how we can all do our part to keep the park’s primates healthy and safe.

In New Orleans, LA, our team integrates the methods and results from our field research into a biannual workshop centered on positive mentoring and experiential learning at “Girls in STEM at Tulane” (GiST). Our workshop provides a diverse group of New Orleans middle school girls with an interactive discovery of what it means to be a primate by providing hands-on learning opportunities and experiences. At the university level, we share our research and educational background on the importance of approaching conservation using a One Health framework through guest lectures, seminar courses, and guided student mentoring and training opportunities.

The University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta is home to the P.A.C.E. (Primates Adapting to Changing Environments) database, which stores all of the 40+ years of data from the Santa Rosa Primate Field Project. This database is used in conjunction with our genomics lab at the University to understand the behavioral and molecular adaptations that will determine how primates cope with a variety of threats, including climate change, drought, and even the COVID-19 pandemic. We bring the knowledge gained from our research to stakeholder communities through public talks, internship opportunities, and classroom visits.