Areas of Expertise: large and mesocarnivore ecology, human-wildlife conflict, human dimensions in conservation, stakeholder engagement

Zoë Hanley is a Representative for the Northwest Program based out of White Salmon, Washington. She leads Defenders’ coexistence initiatives in the region, working directly with communities sharing the landscape with imperiled species like grizzly bears and gray wolves. For the past decade, Zoë has worked to deepen human understanding of carnivore ecology and develop strategies for human-carnivore coexistence. Before joining Defenders, Zoë worked as an independent consultant in Washington identifying opportunities to study non-lethal deterrents for gray wolf depredation on livestock and monitoring relocated beaver colonies. For her PhD dissertation she collaborated with state wildlife agencies, ranchers, and other stakeholders in the Northwest and Rockies to forecast areas at risk for livestock depredation by gray wolves in Washington. Prior to that, she studied fisher and marten populations in California for the U.S. Forest Service, conserved rare ecological and geological resources for Colorado Parks & Wildlife, and surveyed anglers’ views of river otter expansion in North Dakota for the IUCN River Otter Specialist Group. 

Zoë has a PhD in Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences from Washington State University and a Masters in Applied Ecology and Conservation Biology from Frostburg State University.