Holly Lutz is Associate Curator of Mammals at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) and Adjoint Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Colorado Denver. She joined the museum in 2024 after completing postdoctoral appointments at Scripps Research, the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, and the University of Chicago. At DMNS, she oversees the museum’s mammal and parasite collections and develops interdisciplinary research programs and partnerships with both domestic and international collaborators. Her collections-based research involves leading remote field expeditions across Africa and the Americas to study avian and mammalian biodiversity, host-microbiome dynamics, and the eco-evolutionary drivers of emerging zoonotic diseases.

Dr. Lutz holds degrees from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Cornell University, where her dissertation focused on the ecology and evolution of malarial parasites in wild birds and bats. She has authored more than 35 peer-reviewed publications, including contributions to Nature Microbiology, Molecular Ecology, Immunity, and Journal of Biogeography. Her work has been supported by grants from the NSF, National Geographic, and Schmidt Ocean Institute. In 2022, she was honored with the Maxwell-Hanrahan Field Biology Award, recognizing her leadership in advancing biodiversity science and One Health research.

Eric Odell has been working for Colorado Parks and Wildlife for over 25 years. In that time he has worked in nearly all ecosystems throughout the state, from the eastern shortgrass prairie to the western mountain landscapes. His focus has been on work prioritizing the conservation of rare or imperiled species. This has included black-footed ferrets, river otters, Canada lynx, wolverine, and most recently gray wolves.

He is the Wolf Conservation Program Manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. In this role, he led the development of Colorado's Wolf Restoration and Management Plan. After the Park and Wildlife Commission's unanimous approval of the Plan in May of 2023, Eric led the field implementation of the restoration of wolves to western Colorado. He is the biological and technical lead on wolves for the agency. 

Tim Ritschard is a 5th generation rancher and President of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association. Middle Park was the first location of where wolves were released. 

Tim was the voice for Middle Park producers during early wolf reintroduction, sharing ranchers' experiences of what was going on with wolves on the ground with the general public. Tim's involvement with the Colorado wolf reintroduction was driven by a desire to advocate for the agricultural industry through wolf reintroduction, a challenge producers had not faces in almost 80 years. Tim hopes to share the true impacts that are happening on the landscape. 

Dr. Kelly Dunning is the Timberline Professor of Sustainable Outdoor Recreation and Tourism. She holds a PhD from MIT in Natural Resources and Conservation Planning, an MS from Oxford University in Environmental Policy, and a BA from the University of Florida.

Her research focuses on conservation policy in places where tourism is an important part of local identity. Dunning looks at vulnerable ecosystems, like coral reefs, that are popular among tourists and determines the best management policies for biodiversity and livelihoods. Dunning works hand-in-hand with rural communities, such as Colorado ranchers working on wolf reintroduction challenges, providing environmental dispute resolution insights. Dunning is an Affiliate Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, an NCAR Early Career Innovator, a National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Early Career Fellow, and has received funding from places like the National Science Foundation.

Prior to her lab at Wyoming, she ran the Conservation Governance Lab at Auburn University. Dunning currently advises the Congressional Sportsmen and Women’s Club at the University of Wyoming, runs the New to Hunting program with Delta Waterfowl which teaches faculty and students to hunt, and runs a veterans mentoring program called Green to Green.

Rob Edward is a co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, along with his friend and long-time colleague Mike Phillips of the Turner Endangered Species Fund. For the past three decades, Rob has followed his passion to make the world a better place, particularly for the native wildlife of the West.

From 1994 to 2009, Rob worked professionally to restore native carnivores to the American West—a passion he still pursues in a volunteer capacity. From 2019 through 2020, Rob helped to lead the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund’s successful ballot measure to reintroduce wolves to Colorado. Now, Rob volunteers as the President of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project’s board.

Rob’s articles and essays about gray wolf conservation are featured in several books and newspapers. When not knee deep in wolf politics, Rob and his wife Anne are out photographing bears and wolves in the wilds of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado - or hanging out with their friends at one of the Front Range’s ubiquitous house concerts.

Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Niemiec is co-director of the Animal Human Policy Center and an Associate Professor in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department at Colorado State University. She has served as the manager of the Bureau of Animal Protection for the state of Colorado, where she and her team addressed domestic animal mistreatment throughout the state. She has authored over 30 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has led stakeholder processes and conducted social science research focused on the human dimensions of conservation and animal protection. Dr. Niemiec has a PhD in Environment and Resources from Stanford University and B.A. in Ecology and Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College.