“Education in conservation is only as effective as the level of compassion between the people practicing it and the people impacting on it.”
Yolanda’s main responsibility is managing the two Higher Education Training programmes in Wildlife Area Management, which attracts students from across the SADC region and beyond.
Before being employed by the SAWC in 2017, she was a lecturer with the Centre for Wildlife Management (University of Pretoria). Her academic qualifications include a BSc(Agric) in Animal Science and a BSc(hons) in Wildlife Management through the University of Pretoria, a research MSc on stress in elephants through the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a PhD in Wildlife Ecology through Wageningen University.
She is passionate about wildlife conservation and management and has worked as field technician, monitor and manager on several reserves across South Africa. “My “pet” passion is anything related to elephants hence co-authoring a number of published articles and books on the subject. I am also vice chair of the Elephant Specialist Advisory Group of South Africa.”