Else Named Associate Director
for Animal Resources at Yerkes National Primate Research Center
ATLANTA February 19, 2003 James Else, D.V.M., has been named associate
director for animal resources at the Yerkes National Primate Research
Center of Emory University. Dr. Else’s responsibilities include overseeing
animal care and husbandry, veterinary medicine, animal records and non-human
primate enrichment at the Yerkes Main Station and Field Station.
"We are honored to have someone
of Jim’s international stature serve as Yerkes’ associate director for
animal resources," said Stuart Zola, Ph.D., Yerkes director. "His extensive
experience in veterinarian medicine and program development will be
an enormous asset to the Center and our world-class research programs."
Dr. Else has 25 years of
senior-level management experience in various scientific, academic and
government institutions. He is considered a leading authority in conservation
medicine, specifically the impact of environmental change on veterinary
heath, public health and emerging infectious diseases. His areas of
speciality include primatology, lab animal husbandry, natural resource
management, epidemiology and ecosystem health.
Dr. Else’s appointment as
Yerkes associate director for animal resources is the second time he
has held the position. From 1989 to 1991, he worked at Yerkes as associate
director and associate research professor.
"I am excited about returning
to Yerkes and working with the dedicated and skilled staff of the Division
of Animal Resources," said Dr. Else. "Together, we will enhance an already
outstanding operation."
Dr. Else has published more
than 80 scientific papers and a three-volume book on non-human primates.
Before returning to Yerkes, he served as director of the Tufts Center
for Conservation Medicine at the Tufts University School of Veterinary
Medicine in North Grafton, Mass., where he also was an associate professor
in the Department of Environmental and Population Health. In addition,
Dr. Else was co-director of the Envirovet Program in Wildlife and Ecosystem
Health, a multi-institutional veterinary training program that he will
continue to manage from Yerkes.
From 1994 to 1999, Dr. Else
served as an advisor to the Ministry of Tourism in Uganda. He was deputy
director for science for the Kenya Wildlife Service from 1991 to 1994.
Dr. Else holds a doctor of
veterinary medicine and masters’ degrees in preventive veterinary medicine
and medical entomology from the University of California at Davis.
The Yerkes National Primate
Research Center of Emory University is one of eight National Primate
Research Centers funded by the National Institutes of Health. The Yerkes
Center is a multidisciplinary research institute recognized as a leader
in biomedical and behavioral studies with non-human primates. Yerkes
scientists are on the forefront of developing vaccines for AIDS and
malaria, and treatments for cocaine addiction, Parkinson’s disease and
cardiovascular disease. Other research programs include cognitive development
and decline, childhood visual defects, organ transplant rejection and
social behaviors of primates. Leading researchers located worldwide
seek to collaborate with Yerkes scientists.
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